


No Matter How far They Wander

by TheyCallMeMellowYellow



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - After College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Drinking, Drug Use, Drugs, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, High School, Illegal Activities, Implied/Referenced Sex, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Reunions, Underage Drinking, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:47:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26706214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheyCallMeMellowYellow/pseuds/TheyCallMeMellowYellow
Summary: Please note, this fic is set in two different timeframes, the first few chapters explore the character's backstory. This goes all through highschool. Then finally it will come back to the present.----Adora chuckles, "oh Scorpia how can you be so sweet and so clumsy?" She thinks to herself, there is someone new at the bar, she has her back turned. Long voluminous curly hair, a dark grey tank top with small rips on it and black jeans as far as she could tell. It’s her turn and the girl, who was busy with something in the back of the bar, finally turns.She walks over to the bar and simply says “Hey Adora...” with a low raspy voice.Adora’s eyes widen, her heart races, she feels like she has seen a ghost. She hasn’t heard this voice in years. "Of all the bars in the city why on earth did she end up working at our regular place??" Adora thinks to herself, still in a state of utter disbelief.“H-hey Catra…”------Adora & the gang live in Bright Moon a big city full of opportunities. They have a favourite regular bar to hang out after work.What happens when Catra, someone from Adora's past, ends up being the new bartender?
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 86





	1. The Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> If you stumbled upon this fic and opened it, thank you.  
> I have never written a fictional story before, She-Ra has inspired me to try it, it was such a rollercoaster and it really helped me cope with some tough times, I have a feeling I'm not the only one.
> 
> If anyone reads this and wishes to leave a comment can I please ask that you apply the Backstreet Boys philosophy to your message?  
> What is the Backstreet Boys philosophy you ask?  
> Allow me to explain  
> If you like it  
> Tell me why  
> If you don't like it  
> Tell me why
> 
> Honest feedback is always appreciated =)

**Chapter 1**

The Office 

The day was just another Thursday afternoon, a young woman with short pink hair is sitting at her desk. She is wearing a black shirt and pink tartan trousers, complete with all white converse shoes.

On the desk, there is a laptop, a monitor, a mouse and an extra keyboard. The desk is quite messy, full of colourful post-its and an empty yoghurt container. Her expression is one of complete boredom until she receives a call, she adjusts her headset and greets the caller:

“Good afternoon thank you for calling Runestone Inc, my name is Glimmer how can I help?”

On the other line, a male voice speaks.

“Hi! I need help with my smart dog collar, it doesn’t seem to be connecting to my phone. I don’t know what to do!”

After hearing this, Glimmer muted the phone to be able to audibly sigh, she unmutes and follows the usual GDPR procedures confirming the identity of the customer before once again helping with what most likely is ignorance, _“is the Bluetooth even on?”_ Glimmer wants to ask this straight away, but of course, she remains professional and follows the script.

“Happy to help, before proceeding I will need to confirm your identity with you if that’s okay, can you please provide your name, email address and phone number?”

Whilst this conversation is happening, the office is full of people typing away on their computers, some can be found on calls. The office is a spacious, bright and modern space. It is on the 25th floor of a tall building in the heart of the city, Brightmoon is the name of this buzzing metropolis. There are floor to ceiling windows instead of an outer wall of the office, the layout is simple, there are rows of four desks set together perpendicular to the windows. 

The colour scheme is mostly white, grey and violet as a colour pop. Behind the desks, there are a few individual rooms, some are the offices of the legal department, who require more privacy, whilst others are available to book for private meetings. 

On the right side of these cubicles, there is a hallway leading up to the kitchen.

Two large fridges are ocated right next to the kitchen counter, these are stocked with milk (including soy and oat milk) butter supplied by the company, and of course, the employees can leave their meals in the fridges.

Like the trendy tech company this office belongs to, the kitchen is fully stocked. There is a microwave, a pantry full of snacks such as granola bars, nut bars, biscuits, different kinds of cereal and peanut butter, the kitchen counter is stocked with sliced bread (both wholegrain and regular) a toaster, a microwave, coffee machine, and of course a sink to wash the dishes. There are plates and cutlery in the cupboards and drawers. To top off the modern office experience there is fresh fruit available twice a week. On the corner of the room, there is a water cooler.

Similarly to the layout of the office, the kitchen also has floor to ceiling windows, partly covered by booths, the tables are laid out in parallel to the windows.

The coffee machine starts buzzing and the smell of fresh coffee fills the air, a young woman with blue air and a dark complexion, wearing a long dark blue dress shirt, black leggings, white high-top vans shoes and quite the collection of bracelets, she grabs the mug whilst absentmindedly scrolling through her phone, suddenly it buzzes, she received a message on WhatsApp.

It's from Seahawk “My dearest Mermista! How are you doing on this fine day? =)”

Mermista let’s out a loud UGH and proceeds to text back “Ok” with an expressionless face. _"Who says my dearest in the 21st century? This guy"_ She thinks to herself as she is picking up her coffee, locking her phone and returning to the office area. 

She walks past people, who are busy doing their respective jobs, straight to Glimmer’s desk, who at this point is busy balancing a pencil between her nose and her upper lip.

Mermista quirks an eyebrow at the sight and clears her throat “Girl... shouldn’t you be working or something?”

To which Glimmer responds by asking “Well, I can ask you the same thing.” and shrugs.

“Whatever… Anyway still up to hit up Swift Wind after work?”

This catches Glimmer’s attention “I almost forgot! It’s Thursday hell yeah let’s go! I could reeeally use a drink! If I have to teach another clueless person how to connect devices via Bluetooth I swear to god I’ll jump out of that window.”

“Okaaay, isn’t that a bit dramatic? Anyway, just invite your friends and shit and we go straight after we finish work”

Glimmer glances at the time on the computer screen. It's 4:36 PM “Less than an hour to go!”

Suddenly a call starts coming in she sighs then answers in the same practised tone “Good afternoon thank you for calling Runestone Inc, my name is Glimmer how can I help?”

At this point, Mermista shrugs and returns to her desk. She sure is glad to not be answering calls and doing customer support anymore. That sucked. She hated talking to people on the phone, managing social media is much more her thing, she loves reading the comments the users leave on the brands’ social media pages. People post the stupidest things on the internet, and that at least can be entertaining. Of course, you can be listening to music, or podcasts, whatever floats your boat, when you no longer need to answer phone calls for a living, seriously who even makes phone calls anymore? Certainly not Mermista.

* * *

The Gym 

There is a Yoga class happening in a spacious room, the floor is made of lightly coloured wood, there is a floor to ceiling mirror covering one entire wall. 

In front of this mirror is a blonde woman with long hair tied up in a top bun, she is wearing a pink tank top and dark grey leggings. There is a visible tattoo on her right shoulder of an intricate well-designed flower. Her name is Perfuma.

“Now slowly change into warrior two” she calmly says while slowly changing between the warrior one pose where she had her arms up, keeping a straight back and the right foot in front with a bent knee whilst her left leg was stretched back. Changing to warrior two required spreading her legs a bit further as if she were on a surfboard whilst keeping the straight back, having one arm facing forward and another facing back with the palms facing down and looking ahead

The people in the class mirrored her actions. There were around 25 people in the room. Her voice fills the silence “Good now inhale and on the exhale let’s go down to downward facing dog”

She slowly positions both her hands on the mat and proceeds to raise her waist whilst stretching her legs with her feet firmly on the mat. The other Yogis follow her lead. 

Suddenly the door opens, a blonde young woman with a ponytail and blue eyes, wearing black leggings, white trainers and a printed dark blue tank top with the words PT and the gym name. She nearly walks in until she notices that there is a class happening. Her eyes widen “Shit! Sorry” and hurriedly leaves the room. Whilst she is walking back into the gym she wonders why she never knows when Perfuma is giving her classes. ”Perhaps I should check the schedules…” she mutters to herself. Suddenly she is interrupted by a young dark-skinned girl with braids and a shaved head on both sides. She is wearing the same tank top, a pair of fitted tracksuit trousers and black trainers “Adora! I was just looking for you. It seems like one of our treadmills stopped working, I tried taking a look but have no idea what’s going on...”

“Oh hey, Lonnie, that’s weird I’ll go take a look”

“Thanks! Come with me” to this Lonnie grabs her arm and pretty much drags her to the said treadmill. 

Whilst Adora is checking the cables and pressing random buttons as if she knew what she is doing, her phone buzzes in her pocket. She picks it up to see a message on the group chat.

#BestFriendsSquad

Bow: “Adora!! Glimmer and I finish at 5h30 PM and we’re going for a drink or 20 at Swift Wind, wanna join?? (starry eyes emoji)”

Adora smiles at this and a new message pops up this time from Glimmer “You better join or else I go down to that gym of yours and drag you out myself! Bow you know we can’t afford 20 drinks in a bar… We’ll do that on the weekend and just buy booze at the supermarket”

Adora starts typing a response “Hey guys I finish at 6 PM today! I can join you after work, I'll just go later. No need to drag me, I'd like to drink with you come on! (not 20 drinks though I would not be physically able to work tomorrow ;_; sorry Bow... and Glimmer is right who can afford that?”

“You are such buzzkill sometimes, you both owe me those 20 drinks on the weekend! But it’s cool to see you later!” Bow replies, “We’ll see about that Bow… Adora let us know when you’re on the way” Glimmer responds, then Adora follows up with “Thanks guys see you soon =)”

This whole time Lonnie was staring at Adora with a raised eyebrow whilst she was smiling like an idiot at her phone. “What?” Adora asks “OH right the treadmill, look Lonnie I’ll be honest I have no idea what’s going on, we’d need like a mechanic or whatever? This is not a car so a treadmill guy?”

“Gosh, Adora, chill, we’ll get someone, hey who made you smile like an idiot just now? A new lover?” She says this with a smirk on her face and wiggles her eyebrows.

The question surprises Adora and she flushes “What, oh no it was just Bow and Glimmer they’re going to Swift Wind tonight, wanna join?” she replies still visibly flustered.

“Of course you were, what the hell is Swift Wind? Some fart place or something?” She quirks an eyebrow and adds “You do remember I’m closing tonight right?” 

Adora starts laughing at this thinking how much she should definitely check other people’s schedules “Shit yeah sorry! Next time maybe?” Adora replies with a sheepish smile and her arm behind her neck “And Swift Wind is our regular bar, we go there once or twice a week it’s a really cool place! And yes I know I know fart jokes and stuff I don’t understand the name either... But I promise it’s a nice place’” Adora ends with a smile.

“Cool, yeah one day when we’re both not closing, I wonder when that will happen... Anyway, thanks for looking into this and for inviting me, have fun tonight and try to not get too drunk” She winks when mentioning the word drunk “I will thanks! Oh, shit... have fun I mean not get too drunk!”

Adora thinks to herself _“God Lonnie no need to give me shit I’m not an alcoholic that was one time! As an adult but still, teenage years don't count. I should check on Perfuma”_

Meanwhile, people start walking out of the big room, the Yoga lesson must be over, Adora says goodbye to Lonnie and goes back to the Yoga room, this time without interrupting.

“Hey, Perfuma! Sorry about earlier…” 

“Hi, Adora! Sorry about what?” Perfuma asks with a gentle smile.

“Oh, you didn’t? Never mind! Just got a text from Bow and Glimmer they asked if we wanted to join them at Swift Wind tonight?”

Perfuma squeezes her hands together, smiles and says “Of course Adora! I don’t have any more classes today what time do you finish?”

“Cool! I finish at 6 PM” She glances at the clock on the wall. It's 5h30 PM now. “Would you wait for me and we can go together?” Adora asks “Of course! I will always wait for you Adora”

To this Adora replies with a smile “Cool I’ll go back to the gym and see if anybody needs me, I’ll meet you later”

“Sure thing, let me know when you’re finished” They both start walking towards the exit, Adora goes back to the gym whilst Perfuma heads to the staff room.

Time passes rather quickly, at 6 o’clock Adora heads up for the staff room to get changed and ready to go out. She puts on her dark grey skinny jeans ripped on one knee, a light grey loose t-shirt and her favourite red jacket and red converse combo. She decides to leave her hair loose this time and put on a bit of makeup, eyeliner, mascara and some light foundation nothing too fancy.

Once she’s ready she heads out, says goodbye to Lonnie and goes out the door. She has a pretty good guess where to find Perfuma, she turns left and walks to the alleyway next to the gym, and of course, there she is puffing on a joint leaning with her back against the wall. She has changed her outfit as well, her hair is now loose apart from two strands that tie to the back and she is wearing a pair of ripped mom jeans, a dress shirt with a feather pattern, and a long black cardigan completed by black boots. “Of course she is” Adora walks over to Perfuma who is humming to some music and fails to notice her. Adora starts waving a hand in front of Perfuma’s face, this, of course, gets her attention, she smiles “Adora! You’re finished! Would you like a puff?’ “Yes please, we can finish that and go meet the guys”

To this, they start chatting about their day and somehow end up discussing the meaning of it all, as one sometimes does when stoned.

“Adora, we all come from the same source you know? Everyone and everything is connected, nature works perfectly in sync to have life on this Earth, it’s not difficult to see this if you open your mind and stop believing the illusion of separateness…”

Adora quirks an eyebrow at this, it’s not like she disagrees, she does see where Perfuma is coming from and to be honest, she might be right, it was just an unexpected topic to fall into after a long day. But of course, this is Perfuma we’re talking to and Adora loves her for it. 

“You might be right Perfuma, but at the end of the day how can we know for sure? There are things out there that our human minds can’t even begin to comprehend, maybe this is all a simulation, maybe this is all an illusion made with magic, who knows? I think that it doesn’t really matter because our lives go on regardless, real or not. To us, it feels real and maybe that’s enough?”

“Adora… You are wise beyond your years, you know that right?” Perfuma puts out the joint and throws it into the nearest trash can “Time to go!” She exclaims, Adora replies with a smile “Yes let’s go, get on the subway while we’re still stoned!” Both of them start laughing and walk towards the station.

* * *

The Bar 

The atmosphere at Swift Wind is lively, music is playing, it’s still early so most people are sitting at a table instead of dancing. The bar area is quite big, some people are sitting on the stools by the bar.

There is a small stage area with the table set up in the corner for the DJ who is meant to start playing from 8h00 PM.

On the opposite corner to this, a booth can be found, where Glimmer is sitting next to a young tall dark and handsome man, next to him is Mermista and a good looking guy with a moustache is sitting next to her.

Glimmer turns to the guy sitting next to her, he is wearing faded jeans, red converse shoes, a white shirt with a red heart with eyes printed on it and a leather bomber jacket. She says “Come on Bow it’s your turn to get the next round!”

To which he exclaims “What? I had the last round, it's Sea Hawk’s turn!” when saying this he points to the guy with the moustache. He is wearing black trousers, doc martens boots, a dark blue dress shirt with a paper boat pattern and a dark blue bandana 

“Come on Bow you and I both know the last round was on my dearest Mermista!” Mermista rolls her eyes, sighs and lets out a loud UGH

“Sea Hawk stop calling me my dearest! How old are you like 83? And yes, I did get the last round.” They all turn to Glimmer “Are you like, trying to be cheap again and get away with free drinks or something? Girl I’m not your sugar mamma you go get the next round!” Mermista says

“Ugh fine! I’m not trying to be cheap I just thought it was Bow’s turn” Before he could reply Glimmer gets up and walks over to the bar.

She patiently waits while the bartender serves the other patrons. Until it’s finally her turn.

“Hey, Glimmer! Welcome back, how are you doing?” Says a tall woman with short white hair faded on the sides, she is wearing a white t-shirt with a scorpion that looks like it’s painted on, skinny jeans and dark red classic vans shoes. She has her nails painted black.

“Hi, Scorpia! I’m doing great now that I’m here drinking and not at work...” Glimmer replies with a soft smile thinking “ _Scorpia is always so friendly no matter how busy it gets”_

“Good to hear that, hey I’m working but it’s great to be here too, I’m excited we’re getting a new team member!” 

“Really? That’s great you guys have needed some help for a while. I don’t know how you handle the bar by yourself and only have one other person on the floor... “ Glimmer points out

“I know right! It can’t just be me, Kyle, and Rogelio anymore, we needed someone else. I’m glad the boss was happy to hire someone new. I really hope she’s cool!”

“ I hope so too! So huh can I get some drinks?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry! That’s my job yeah... right! That’s my job! And I totally forgot, I was just so happy to see you, you know? Anyway, what can I get you?”

To this Glimmer smiles, Scorpia likes to talk a lot but she is genuinely lovely, she places her order and Scorpia serves her, she thanks her and says goodbye, and once she has her drinks, she walks back to the booth only to find that two new faces have joined.

She sets the glasses on the table “Adora! Perfuma! How are you doing? Glad you could join us!” “Hi Glimmer!” they both say and proceed to go for a hug.

Glimmer sits down and joins the conversation. That’s when she notices something, she squints her eyes at the newcomers and points out “Girls! You’re stoned! Of course, you are, you would go and do that without us wouldn’t you?” 

This gets a chuckle from across the table, Perfuma and Adora look at each other conspiratorially, they start smiling “Of course we did, it’s tradition, the after-work joint!’ Perfuma exclaims, Adora chuckles “It’s not tradition for me, but every once in awhile it’s okay and huh we’re here guys! Tell me about your days”

“Ugh, Adora can we please not talk about work? We just left the place. The last thing I want to think about is work... “ Mermista chips in.

“Oh come on we don’t need to talk about work, how are you doing since we last saw each other?” Adora replies.

“Oh Oh! I have been great, I just got myself a new bow and archery has been even more amazing! The equipment is so important guys it really makes a difference”

Adora always thought it was funny how someone named Bow would choose archery as their favourite sport, almost like he was born for it.

“That's a great Bow!” Adora smiles at her friend.

The conversation continues, Glimmer is super bored with work and has been focusing mostly on playing games when she is home, Sea Hawk told tales of how his boat is the best tourism entertainment available in Bright Moon and what a brave captain he is, even though everyone knows these claims are exaggerated. Perfuma talks excitedly about how her garden is turning out, she says it looks so beautiful and it’s always growing. Adora mentions she has been keeping active, as always. She found a new workout programme she enjoys and tells the story about this Art Gallery she went to this week. Mermista just says her week has been fine and whatever and does not elaborate any further. 

“This is great guys, I’ll grab myself a drink now, as you all have something and I’m just sitting here watching you drink, Perfuma do you want anything?” Adora asks “Oh, I don’t really feel like alcohol today can you please just get me a pineapple juice?” Perfuma responds “Sure, it will only make my round cheaper anyway” Adora responds with a smile.

“And I’m the cheap one??” Glimmer interjects.

To this everyone but Adora and Perfuma chuckle, they glance at each other and shrug, then Adora walks over to the bar.

While she is waiting to be served she waves to Scorpia who is busy serving customers but still manages to wave back, spilling some beer in the process. She smiles nervously and continues pouring her beer.

Adora chuckles, "oh Scorpia how can you be so sweet and so clumsy?" She thinks to herself, there is someone new at the bar, she has her back turned. Long voluminous curly hair, a dark grey tank top with small rips on it and black jeans as far as she could tell. It’s her turn and the girl, who was busy with something in the back of the bar, finally turns.   
She walks over to the bar and simply says “Hey Adora...” with a low raspy voice.

Adora’s eyes widen, her heart races, she feels like she has seen a ghost. She hasn’t heard this voice in years. "Of all the bars in the city why on earth did she end up working at our regular place??" Adora thinks to herself, still in a state of utter disbelief.

“H-hey Catra…” 

* * *


	2. Origin Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Major thanks to anyone who is reading this. I didn't expect to have many kudos or even hits, it means a lot that you chose to spend your time reading my story, and for leaving feedback! Thank you =)
> 
> This chapter is the origin story of our lovely ladies, starting in their childhood.  
> I want to tell the story of how they met, and what happened until they went their separate ways. This will be pure fluff.
> 
> Again, any feedback is much appreciated.
> 
> PS: Mi hija means my daughter in Spanish.

**Childhood**

On a bright sunny Sunday, the weather is warm and there is a gentle breeze. Springtime can be lovely in the park, Whispering Woods is the name of this big patch of grass.

There is a pink blanket on the floor, on top of it is a picnic basket, a few bottles of water and orange juice. An elderly lady is sitting on this blanket with a bottle of juice in one hand and a book in another. She has thick glasses and pinkish nearly white hair, she is wearing a pink dress and sandals, her name is Razz.

Nearby in the grass, there is a young girl, around the age of 6, with blonde hair, bright blue eyes and missing one of her front teeth, she is wearing a white t-shirt and jean shorts. She is currently busy chasing a squirrel. 

“Come back Mr Squirrel I have some food for you!” She laughs whilst running around after the squirrel with a half-eaten sandwich.

“Adora dearie leave the poor squirrel in peace!” Razz calls out from her blanket.

Adora stops chasing the squirrel and lets him go “Yes gramma” suddenly a bird lands near her, picking at the ground. 

She flashes a wide gap-toothed grin “Come here Mr bird!” and slowly approaches him only for him to fly away as soon as he senses her.

Time flies when you’re having fun, but it is nearly 5 o’clock and time to go home. It’s a school day tomorrow after all. Razz picked up everything and called Adora “Adora dearie it’s time to go home!”

“Yes gramma!” The little girl replies and runs towards her grandmother, Razz grabs her hand and they walk hand in hand to take the bus home.

Once they arrive in the neighbourhood, they find it full of life, people out and about in their gardens enjoying the nice weather, children playing outside, people walking their dogs...

On their walk home, Adora notices a van parked next to a house that she knew was empty for a while, a man with dark hair and olive skin is carrying boxes from the van and into the house. Right behind him is an adorable little girl with big fluffy curly hair, olive skin and freckles. She is wearing a blue cat t-shirt and shorts, running after the older man with some of the lightest things her tiny arms can carry.

Whilst this is happening Adora is watching them and asks “Gramma who are those people?” 

“Oh I don’t know dearie but I believe they are our new neighbours, she looks like she is around your age, maybe you will make a new friend!”

“New neighbours? A new friend?” Adora looks wide-eyed at the little girl busy helping her dad move their things, she smiles and starts waving whilst shouting “Hello neighbours! Nice to meet you I’m Adora”

This gets their attention, the other girl stops what she’s doing to look in their direction, she squints her eyes at them until her father bumps her lightly, he speaks in a low voice so only she can hear “Come on mi hija be nice to our neighbours, say hi” 

He starts smiling and waves back to Adora “Hi neighbours! We’re just moving today, My name is Oliver and this is my little girl Catra, lovely to meet you!” He pokes Catra when he’s saying this and she starts waving back with a neutral expression. 

“Nice to meet you I’m Razz and this chatty child is my granddaughter Adora. We live in that house” At this, both Razz and Adora start pointing to a house that is about 5 houses away.

“Let us know if you need anything neighbour, good luck with the rest of your move” She smiles and waves goodbye whilst dragging Adora along who seems to be smiling widely at Catra

“Bye neighbour!” she says and waves goodbye following her grandmother along.

Once they are gone, Oliver turns to Catra and says “Come on my girl, the neighbours seem nice, would you give them a chance? The little girl was smiling at you and all you did was scoff, try to be nicer next time okay?” 

Catra looks up to her dad and shrugs “Dad I don’t know them”. Then she picks up the bag she was previously carrying and takes it to the house.

Oliver sights “You know you need to start talking to people to get to know them right? They seemed nice, give them a chance mi hija” he smiles softly as he says this.

Catra glances at her father “I’ll try” and carries on.

_ “Better than nothing”  _ Oliver thinks to himself whilst picking up another box.

* * *

On a sunny Wednesday Razz and Adora have just arrived from school, immediately Adora slumps her bag on the floor, runs to the other room, picks up her bicycle and says “Gramma can I go outside? Can I?” with wide eyes

“Go on dearie but stay around here okay? I will call you for dinner” Razz thinks about how much energy Adora has and how it could be a good idea to get her to take some type of sport “ _ If only I could afford it, I wonder what the school offers?” _

At this point, Adora was long gone with her bike. 

She cycles around the block a few times, with a big smile on her face, cycling was one of her favourite things after all.  Then she notices Catra sitting outside holding a magnifying glass over the grass.  Curiosity takes over and Adora decides to approach her “Hi neighbour! Catra was it?” she says expectantly.

Catra looks up from whatever she was doing squinting her eyes “Hi, yes I’m Catra, what's your name?” she asks. 

“Oh I said it already, I’m Adora'' she says with a smile, this is when she first sees Catra up close and notices something interesting in Catra’s eyes, they are two different colours, the right one a beautiful shade of cyan and the left a deep yellow. 

“Catra, your eyes! They’re… they’re different colours!” Adora had never seen anyone with different coloured eyes, this was an entirely new discovery for her.

Catra lowered her gaze back to the floor contemplating  _ “Of course that’s what she notices, and dad said she’s nice… She’s just gonna call me cyclops next” _ Pfft is all that actually comes out of Catra’s mouth.

Adora seems unfazed, most likely she didn’t even notice this. Her eyes are wide almost looking like they have stars in shining in them “That's the coolest thing ever! Your eyes are so cool and so pretty!” 

This kind of response was not something Catra expected, surprised she looks back at Adora, this time with a curious expression and says “Thanks” 

“So what are you doing with the magnifying glass anyways?”

“Oh the usual, just using the sun to burn things, I was burning some ants”

Adora gasps “Catra! That’s mean!” The other girl just shrugs at the comment “How do you do that?” Adora asks this time with curiosity.

“You really don’t know? You use the sun, just point it at the floor like this” Catra starts explaining in more detail while Adora listens intently.

Suddenly, there is a loud “Adoraaaaa!! Time for dinner!!” Razz is on her front porch waving at her grandchild.

“Oh, that’s my gramma, nice to see you, miss pretty eyes!” Adora smiles, waves goodbye then heads back to her house.

Catra just stands there watching her as Adora rides her bike back to her house.

* * *

It’s Summertime and the living's easy. It’s a Monday but it doesn’t really matter as Adora is currently enjoying her summer vacation. 

She wanted to go cycling but her grandmother said the sun was too hot for her to be out, so she was asked to wait until it cooled down.

Adora does not know how to wait or stay still for that matter. She already played all the games she could think of, she jumped on the sofa until she was told off. Ran back and forth in the living room much to the chagrin of her grandmother. 

“Adora please just watch cartoons or something it’s only 3 o’clock the sun is still too strong”

“Gramma I want to move! I wanna cycle” Adora whines 

Razz sights  _ “She definitely needs to practice some kind of sport”  _ she thinks “Adora dearie it’s just a while longer okay? If you behave I’ll get you ice cream. Deal?”

At the mention of ice cream Adora’s eyes widen as her mouth waters “Deal!” she says excitedly “I’m behaving now”

Razz laughs at this “Dearie don’t be impatient and you’ll get your ice cream”

“Ok gramma” at this Adora picks up the remote and sits down on the couch to watch cartoons on TV.

Adora did manage to mostly behave, she would still get up and act out whatever was happening on TV, fighting the bad guys, gotta catch em’ all, running from the monsters, fighting them with a sword… It seemed to help her stay focused on the screen.

Suddenly, she heard a melody, this is what Adora would describe as the best song in the entire world, the icecream van was near. She immediately went looking for her grandma “Gramma! The Icecream van is here, can I get one can I? Can I? You promised!” She asks excitedly whilst running in place.

Razz chuckles at the sight “Here you go, dearie, go get your ice cream” then she hands her granddaughter some money.

Adora’s eyes light up like it’s Christmas, she takes the money “Thank you gramma!’ and bolts out of the house straight away to find the ice cream van.

Once she locates the van she runs to wait in line with all the other excited kids. 

She finds someone familiar waiting in line “Catra! You’re here, what are you doing?”

Catra turns around looking at her with a raised eyebrow “Duh getting ice cream same as you” she responds with an ironic tone. 

This makes Adora scratch her neck “Yeah right duh, gramma said if I behaved I could get ice cream and then the van came! It’s great isn’t it?”

Catra just looks at her “What’s great?” she asks. 

“The ice cream van dummy!” Adora responds in a playful tone.

They keep chatting, well Adora does most of the talking until it's their turn to buy the ice cream.

A dora purchased an ice cream sandwich and Catra a chocolate, caramel and vanilla popsicle.

They left the truck together in a good mood, eating away at their respective ice creams and then, abruptly, this older kid bumps into Catra making her drop the ice cream, he says “Watch where you’re going, Cyclops!” then walks away. 

Catra is shaken by this, choosing not to say anything to his remark, she starts staring at her ice cream melting on the ground trying to hold back tears.

Seeing this, Adora, who is always an empath, feels Catra’s sadness, then she does something the other girl certainly was not expecting. She breaks her ice cream sandwich in half, then offers one half to Catra with a gentle smile on her face.  The freckled girl did not see that coming, she stared at the ice cream in Adora’s hand wide-eyed  _ “Why is she sharing this with me?”  _ she thinks.

“Come on Catra take it, it’s for you, or don’t you like this one?”

This snaps Catra out of her trance, she looks at the other girl and for the first time offers a genuine smile, she accepts the offer “Thanks Adora, this is nice of you”

Adora grins at this “Of course Catra! You deserve your ice cream too and that kid was really mean!” 

“Yeah…” Catra responds looking down, taking a bite of her new ice cream.

“You know Cyclops is like a superhero right? He’s on X-men” Adora points out.

“Hmmm” this is the full-mouthed response from Catra, she wasn’t sure what the other girl meant with this.

“So this means he called you a superhero! You will kick butt!” Adora said with a big gap-toothed grin.

Catra chuckled “Yeah I kick butt” and continued eating.

Adora is watching her intently “Catra don’t listen to the mean kids, you have really pretty eyes” She smiles softly when saying this.

This is when Catra stops eating, looks the other girl in the eye and smiles “Thanks Adora”

Shortly after the ice cream van encounter, they became friends, and soon, inseparable. Playing together at any opportunity, they would race their bikes around the neighbourhood, visit each other's houses all the time and play games. They always had each other’s backs.

After a while, they became best friends. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! They became friends now what?
> 
> The next chapters will move on to their teenage years, we'll see what happens ;)
> 
> PS: did you find the hidden song?


	3. Young Blood

Catra is asleep in her room, curled up under her blankets. The room is quite messy with random clothes scattered around, black curtains are preventing the sunlight from coming in. Suddenly the alarm starts ringing loudly. 

Catra groans “Ughhh! Fuck mornings” then slams the clock for it to stop ringing.

Once it stops she mutters “Finally..” and covers herself up to go back to sleep.

Moments later her father opens the door, notices she’s still sleeping and sighs  _ “Why is it so hard for her to get up in the morning? She’s been like this since she was a baby… She’s 16 now how long will this last?”  _ he thinks as he’s walking straight to the curtains, carefully avoiding the messy clothes on the floor, and sliding them open.

“Catra get up, it's time for school!”

“Ughh dad... five more minutes... And please close those damn curtains, it's too bright!” 

“No way you’re going to be late, get up it’s time to go, come on” as he says this he pulls back her covers “Why is it always so difficult to get you out of bed mi hija?”

“I hate mornings so much…” she says whilst squeezing her eyes shut.

“Just get up I made some breakfast to go” 

“Fine...” Reluctantly Catra slowly starts getting out of bed.

Her father sighs and mutters to himself “Finally”

A few moments later, after getting ready, Catra grabs her breakfast to go. “Bye dad see you later”

“Bye Catra have a good day at school!” He smiles at her as she’s leaving.

As soon as Catra closes the door she sees the bus from the corner of her eye, “FUCK” She sprints to the bus stop as quickly as she can, she’s lucky the bus stops and waits for her, wait, was that “Adora?” 

Adora smiles, she asks the bus driver to wait before getting on the bus, Catra follows, panting.

“Thanks” she says to the bus driver

“No problem” She proceeds to the furthest available seat, she always liked sitting in the back, and Adora follows.

As they sit down Catra turns to Adora “Thanks for doing that I would have been so late… Who knows when the next bus is coming”

“You’re welcome sleepyhead, and the next bus would be in 25 minutes, so yeah I waited for your ass, I knew you would be late without me” Adora replies.

“What?! You know I hate mornings, you don’t need to do that though, don’t be late because of me”

“Oh I wouldn’t if you didn’t get on this one” 

“Good” They smirk at each other and continue chatting the rest of the way.

The girls manage to arrive at school on time “What’s your first class?” Adora asks. 

“Fucking English I wish the teacher just got diarrhoea or something I’m so done with this…”

Adora laughs, “Catra don’t be so mean! One of these days it’s gonna happen to you, ever heard of karma?”

Catra raises an eyebrow “Yeah there’s a song about that, it’s kind of hard to miss these days, It’s bullshit if you ask me”

“It’s not, and you’ll see that one day girl! What goes around comes around” 

“Another song Adora really?” Catra smirks.

“It’s not a song! Oh… haha I guess it is, but you know I didn’t mean it that way!” Adora points a finger at Catra when saying this. The olive-skinned girl just stares at her finger for a while, she smirks then bites it.

“AH! Catra! What the fuck!” Adora starts shaking her hand and blowing on her finger “Why did you do that?!”

“Oh, Adora… Pointing is rude didn’t anyone ever tell you?”

“YOU are rude, I’m going to class see you later” Adora squints her eyes at Catra trying to be menacing but utterly failing at it as her face looks more like she’s making an effort to shit and it's not coming out.

Catra chuckles at the sight “Bye Adora”

  
  


At lunchtime they meet in the cafeteria, Adora is already sitting on a table by the window with some of their friends. 

Catra arrives with her food tray, tosses her bag dismissively on the floor, sits down and only then does she speak up “Hey bitches, nice to see your ugly faces”

“Hey, idiot” Adora greets her back.

“Hi, Catra” Kyle, the skinny white boy of the group says, he’s blonde, short, has acne and wears braces.

“Sup bitch” Lonnie who has a full head of braids and an eyebrow ring greets her back.

“Ola” Rogelio greets back, he’s the jock of the group, well built and tall. He also doesn’t speak much.

“What are you doing later guys? Wanna hang out?” Adora asks.

“Oh Oh we can go chill by the park it’s sunny today!” Kyle shows excitement at his own suggestion, they all look out the window.

“I’m down” Lonnie responds.

“Same” Rogelio says.

“Why are we listening to Kyle again?” Catra asks, raising an eyebrow, the boy in question looks visibly nervous, he’s always been intimidated by Catra, to be fair, he is intimidated easily by pretty much everyone.

“It’s a great idea, Kyle, screw what this idiot says” Adora responds, they all nod in agreement 

“You guys suck” Catra mutters.

They continue having the rest of their lunch chatting about all sorts of random things, as teenagers do, once lunchtime is finished they head back to class, they all go their separate ways except Adora and Catra who are going to the same class. 

“Why are you so harsh on Kyle? You realise he’s scared of you right?” Adora tentatively asks.

“Yeah but he’s scared of everyone, it’s not my fault he finds strong women intimidating” 

“So you think you’re strong?” Adora wiggles her eyebrows as she continues “I challenge you to an arm-wrestling match!” 

“What?!” Catra seems startled by this offer, partly because she knows she does not stand a chance in an arm-wrestling match with Adora, she’s always been physically stronger, plus she works out like crazy. Catra does not want to go there. 

“You wish, I’m not going to waste my time with such frivolities, I am a strong independent woman” Catra speaks with a terrible impression of a British accent.  _ “What the actual fuck why am I using a British accent?? Oh god”  _ She thinks to herself.

Adora picks up on this “Catra stop this shit, you know you can’t pull off a British accent I don’t even know why you try, you’re just scared you’ll lose” 

“No, I’m not! Fine challenge accepted, or whatever, I’ll beat your ass!” Catra responds but in her mind, the conversation is very different  _ “Oh shit shit shit what did I agree to?”  _

She doesn’t want Adora to know she is panicking inside but she does not back down when challenged. Adora flashes an attempted devilish smile but it comes out dorkier than anything else “You. Me. After class. Table outside by the crooked tree, loser pays for snacks” She points back and forth between them as she says this. 

“Fine whatever” Catra just keeps walking into the classroom thinking about how she’s doomed to fail and spend all her money on someone else’s snacks.

Time goes by so slowly for those who are forced to attend a philosophy class as teenagers. This is definitely a subject meant for adults. Catra was fast asleep behind her book, next to her Adora was doodling, bored out of her mind as the teacher goes on and on explaining to them what Stoicism is.

Suddenly the bell rings  _ “Freedom!”  _ Adora thinks as she looks at Catra who looks startled, clearly just woken up from her nap and confused for a second until she understands the class is finished

“Looks like we’re free to go, let’s go Adora” She says with a raspy voice.

“I hope you didn’t forget our challenge!” There is a glint of something in Adora’s eye as she says this, Catra can’t quite place it.

“Ugh whatever let’s just get this over with” Catra packs up her stuff, her version of packing is her basically just shoving things into her bag without care.

“Let’s do it” Adora responds as they both get up and out of the classroom.

They finally reach their destination, then they proceed to sit on opposite sides of the wooden table, place their elbows on it, and their hands up facing each other. They clasp their hands together.

“Ready for this?’ Adora asks whilst staring at Catra dead in the eye.

“Yeah whatever let’s get this over with” Catra says as she squints at Adora, perhaps subconsciously hoping that this would intimidate her.

“3,2,1” Adora starts tugging Catra’s hand, Catra seems to be holding on better than expected, however, she is still struggling, sweat is coming out of her forehead __

_ “How the fuck is this girl so strong?”  _ She asks herself whilst trying to maintain a straight face, and failing, as she is clearly straining herself. 

BAM a hand slams on the table, it’s Catra’s “I won! WOOHOO, you’re the loser you’ll buy all the snacks!” Adora cheerfully says whilst doing a weird happy dance with her arms.

Catra gets a bit angry at this, she hates losing, her competitive streak does not allow for such weakness.

“Fuck you! It’s not my fault you’re She-Hulk!” 

“Aww you look so cute when you’re angry” Adora states smiling, she adds “But you still owe me snacks!”

Catra’s eyes widen, she blushes, closes her eyes, when she opens them back she exclaims “I’m not cute!”

Before Adora could say anything, someone said “Yeah you’re not cute, get over it” it was Lonny raising an eyebrow at both of them. 

“Did you get into one of your weird little competitions again and Catra lost?” she asked.

Adora and Catra took a glance at each other, smiling and scowling respectively “Catra owes me snacks!” 

“Ugh why do I keep up with this?” Catra asks.

Lonny simply rolls her eyes “Okay guys let’s get the snacks and go, Kyle is on the way and Rogelio is joining after basketball” 

“Sure! Let’s go” Adora says.

They all get up and leave, they stop by a supermarket to buy a bunch of junk food, Oreos, chocolate, Doritos and gummies, and of course some juice and water.

Catra has no more money left because of this, she really wants to kick Adora’s butt. But yet, there they are, going to the park to hang out in the hot September sun.

When they reach the park Kyle is already there, it seems like he found a blanket for them to sit on. “Hey Kyle, where did you get that?” Lonny asks.

“Oh I just went home quickly, I also brought some sandwiches” He smiles as he says this

The girls can’t help but smile back at him, Kyle was always a really nice kid.

They search for a nice spot to sit down. Catra and Lonny quickly exchange glances “Smoke?” Catra asks 

“Yeah but I’m out of papers” Lonny responds.

“Cool, I have papers” Catra finds them in her bag and hands them out to Lonny who quickly gets to work. 

They all discovered weed recently, some guy from their school brought it to a party, they went to this party because they thought it would be cool (it wasn’t) but they ended up getting super stoned and ate everything in sight, who knew the munchies could be that bad? 

Now they know they need snacks when they just want to chill by the park. Adora made a rule that they would not be smoking during school hours, as she actually cares about her academic career, everyone else just went along with it because, to be honest, there is no point. Who wants to waste a perfectly good high at school? Even though they call it High School, it’s not a fun place to be high. 

So from time to time, they come to the park to smoke and chill.  The Whispering Woods park is their favourite, they can hang out with nobody bothering them. 

They laugh and talk until Rogelio joins in just in time, the joint is still around.  They keep smoking and talking, eating all the snacks. 

Overall they have a great time, around 8h00 PM they all head back. 

Adora and Catra are neighbours so they exit the bus on the same stop, they say goodbye to their friends and head out. 

“Thanks for the snacks” Adora smiles at Catra as she says this.

“You’re welcome” Catra frowns, suddenly she is enveloped in an embrace. Adora is hugging her goodbye.

“I can share my snacks with you tomorrow, bye Catra” 

“Thanks, bye Adora” Catra responds, looking a bit flustered  _ “Why is she so... touchy-feely? She should know I don’t do hugs”  _ Catra thinks to herself but she still hugs back anyway.

They wave goodbye to each other and Adora walks to her house, Catra heads home, then stands there by the door looking back, watching her leave for a while before she goes in.

There is a nice smell in the house, her father is cooking something, he’s always been amazing at it. Catra assumes he had to learn when her mother passed. 

She doesn’t remember her that mother much, she was only four years old when it happened. It devastated her father, he was not expecting that, clearly who does? It was a car accident, apparently hit by a drunk driver. Catra was in the car with her in the back seat, but miraculously she had no serious injuries, just minor cuts and bruises. Her father says she is lucky her guardian angel was with her that day. Catra doesn’t believe any of that stuff, she calls it religious mumbo jumbo. She just believes it was dumb luck. 

Her father does the best he can to support them, he works hard as a waiter at a restaurant and has a part-time job as a mechanic. Why he didn’t do it the other way around Catra will never know. But she is grateful that he has always provided what she needed, even if they don’t have a lot.

As she went into the kitchen she snapped out of her daydream, she noticed a tall pale man with what seems like dark purple hair, he’s wearing a grey suit. 

“Hello you must be Catra, my name is Hordak and I am a friend of your fathers’.” He extends the hand to her, she shakes it.

“Hi Hordak nice to meet you” then she glances at her father who did not seem to look up from whatever he was stirring on that pan. 

Catra raises an eyebrow at this but chooses to remain silent.

“Hi mi hija welcome home” Her father attempts to smile at her as he says this. 

“Well I would not want to interrupt your family dinner, I will be heading off, again nice to meet you Catra, goodbye Oliver” he says before heading off.

When Hordak is out of the door Catra glances at her father “Strange man, didn’t know you hung out with guys in suits dad” Catra says as she takes a seat at the table.

“Well I met him at the restaurant, we can’t judge people for what they wear mi hija”

“I suppose you’re right”

They sit down to enjoy their meal and talk about their days, Catra deliberately omitting the weed part of course, overall it was a nice dinner.

  
  


* * *

A few weeks later

  
  


Adora was sleeping sprawled out on her bed like a starfish, drool was coming out of her mouth. The curtains were shut and her room was dark.

Suddenly the alarm goes off, and it just keeps ringing. The young girl just carries on sleeping as if nothing was happening. The door opens abruptly, an upset Razz walks in. She stops the alarm clock, looks at her sleeping granddaughter and sights “Adora dearie it’s time for school” she gently rattles her until she starts stirring, Adora gently opens her eyes and smiles at her grandmother.

“Did I sleep through the alarm again?”

“Yes you did dearie, you’re like a rock, I’m the old one here, only I should be deaf! Now get up and go to school”

“What? I’m not deaf!” 

“How do you explain sleeping through your alarm then? Now come on it’s time for school dearie”

“Fine I’m going, I’m going” Adora starts getting up and her grandma leaves the room, she stops by the door and turns around.

“Dearie I made you breakfast just take it when you leave” then she goes on to do her own thing.

“Thanks, grandma” Adora smiles before getting up and moving to the bathroom to start getting ready.

  
  


A while later, Adora finds herself at the bus stop staring at the time on her crappy Nokia, it’s 8:28 AM  _ “The bus should arrive in 2 minutes if Catra doesn't show I’ll have to go”  _ She thinks to herself, when the bus arrives she looks back and spots Catra running like a track athlete, or a maniac, depending on the perspective. 

“Can you please wait for a moment? My friend is running here now” She says to the bus driver.

“Sure darling” The bus driver replies

Adora hops on the bus when Catra arrives panting, whilst getting on the bus she mutters a “Thank you” to the bus driver then they both go find a seat. 

“Thanks, Adora”

“No worries, I almost thought you wouldn’t make it today sleepyhead”

“Ah no chance! I always get the bus, even if it’s last-minute” 

“Well… If I didn’t wait for your ass and asked the bus driver to wait, you would have missed it” Adora glances at her sideways with a smirk when saying this, she likes to help people, specially Catra, if it weren’t for her waiting for the bus every morning she doesn’t know how Catra would ever make it to school on time, she’s a great friend but she is definitely not known for her punctuality.

“Huh yeah didn’t think about that, maybe I’m only last minute because I know you’ll be there waiting!”

“Would it kill you to say thank you? I mean you just said it earlier” Adora squints her eyes as she says this.

“Huh yeah fuck it, thanks” Catra looks down, then Adora pets her on the head, almost like a cat.

“There, there, was that so hard?” She asks with a smirk.

“Fuck you” Catra mutters under her breath. 

Soon they arrive at their destination and leave the bus.

* * *

Lunchtime

Adora is already sitting by the table with Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio, they’re chatting away and everyone seems to be in a good mood. 

Kyle sees Catra walking over and starts waving “Over here Catra!” Said girl looks in their direction and walks over to the table, she drops her bag on the floor and sits down.

“Hey bitches” She greets her friends.

“Hi, jerk” Lonny responds.

“Hey idiot” Adora says.

“Hi Catra” “Ola” Kyle and Rogelio say respectively.

Catra does not have a food tray with her, her friends stare at each other and Adora is the first to speak “Catra where’s your lunch?” they all turn to her once the question is asked.

“I had it already no big deal” Catra shrugs it off.

“How the fuck did you have your lunch, you were in class ‘till like 5 minutes ago” Lonny speaks up with a raised eyebrow.

“I have my ways” Catra responds with a serious expression and without looking anyone in the eye.

“Catra, you didn’t have lunch did you?” Adora asks with a concerned tone.

“Ugh, fine! I didn’t, happy?” Catra lashes out.

“Why would I be happy about that? Why didn’t you get it?” Adora asks.

“Huh…” Catra looks down, clearly not wanting to answer.

They all look at each other and Adora speaks up “Don’t worry I got you” and places a hand on Catra’s forearm, she looks at Kyle as she does this.

Kyle understands the wordless communication and speaks up “We’ve got you” and gets up, walking over to the lunch queue and waits his turn, the kids can see him speaking with the lunch lady and coming back with a tray. He places the tray in the middle of the table, it has a banana, an empty plate, cutlery, a napkin and some water. 

Adora is the first to put some of her food in, then Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle follow suit.

Kyle pushes over the tray in front of Catra and the plate now includes some rice, green beans and peas, and pieces of chicken.

Catra does not react, her eyes are wide as she is in shock and can’t believe what her friends just did. 

“Girl, are you going to eat your food or are you holding a staring contest with it?” Lonnie asks.

This seems to snap Catra out of her trance “I’ll eat it, thanks guys… This means a lot” she smiles softly and digs in.

They continue eating and chatting, this time Catra is participating in the conversations as well.

* * *

Bus Stop

Adora and Catra leave the bus, as they do Adora asks “Why didn’t you tell me?” with a serious expression.

Catra turns to her puzzled “Tell you what?” 

“That the snack money from yesterday was all you had!” Adora’s concerned expression reveals that this is not coming from real anger.

Catra is taken back by this question “What? That’s not all I had, why would I say that?”

“Then why didn’t you have lunch today? Adora speaks with a softer tone this time.

Catra drops her shoulders and sighs “I lost the bet, didn’t want to use this as an excuse”

“Catra… It’s not an excuse if it’s real, there’s no shame in this, I know your dad works hard but it isn’t easy. I get that” Adora smiles softly and places a hand on Catra’s shoulder.

Catra nods but does not respond. 

“Catra, for real, let me know okay? I’m here for you, and so are our friends. We help each other out remember?” Adora says and hugs Catra tight. 

The olive-skinned girl tenses up, seemingly holding on to a sob as not to cry, and she doesn’t. She hugs Adora back and simply says “Thank you”

“Anytime, wanna come over to mine and watch a stupid movie?” Adora asks tentatively.

“A stupid movie with a stupid girl sounds like a good combination” Catra asks with her devilish tone, she’s back. 

Adora punches her arm “You’re stupid” and sticks out her tongue

“Hey! Fuck off” Catra mutters as she walks in the direction of Adora’s house.

When they walk in, the house seems empty, “Grandma! I’m home” 

“Is she home?” Catra asks.

“She has to be, maybe she’s asleep” Adora responds and then asks Catra “Do you want anything?”

“Do you have popcorn?” 

“I have microwave popcorn, I can make it, go ahead to my room and choose a DVD, comedy please!”

“Cool” Catra says as she goes off to Adora’s room.

As the blonde girl is waiting for the popcorn to be ready her phone buses, she got a text from Catra:

“Razz is asleep, she had the door open so I closed it hope that’s ok”

“See? Told you she’d be sleeping! It’s ok ;)” Adora texts back.

Adora smiles at the image of her sleeping grandmother. She is very lucky to have her, without Razz she would have ended up in the system. She has no idea who her father is, he didn’t want her and left when he found out her mother was pregnant. 

Deadbeat dad, typical. 

Her mother, on the other hand, had her own issues, Razz pointed out numerous times that she was a very loving and caring mother and Adora always had everything she needed. Until she got sick, cancer, she tried all the treatments she could but it wasn’t enough, they didn’t find it on time. Adora was only three years old when this happened, she doesn’t remember much of her mother. But from the pictures, she knows her mother was a stunning woman.

Ever since then it’s just been her and Razz, who took her in despite the pain of losing her own daughter, in a way she gained a new one. They have been inseparable ever since. 

She knows Razz’s pension is not enough for everything they need, but she knows her grandma does her best. She bakes pies for people and sells them, she has a deal with a local bakery who buy her pies as well. The woman is a hustler.

Suddenly the microwave beeps, the popcorn is ready. This snaps Adora out of her daydream, she picks up the popcorn, places them in a bowl and then grabs some orange juice from the fridge before walking up to her room.

When she opens the door she finds Catra laying on her back on the bean bag with the legs up on the bed. Adora quirks an eyebrow at the sight, Catra always liked to sit in weird ways.

The blonde girl walks over and sits down on the bed leaving the bottle and glasses on the floor next to Catra and the bean bag. 

She places the popcorn on the bottom edge of the bed and asks “What movie did you pick?” 

“Scary movie, you said you wanted stupid” Catra crooks her neck to look at Adora who is chuckling.

“Sure let’s do it, press play”

Catra presses play then proceeds to change her position to sit like a normal person on the bean bag, with her back against the bottom edge of the bed.

They watch the movie and laugh at its absurdity, they eat the popcorn and drink the juice. When the popcorn is finished Adora lays belly down on the bed with a pillow underneath her chin. She can smell Catra’s shampoo, which is amazing, it's Coconut and Shea Butter, Adora always liked the smell, and it makes her curls look amazing.

Before she knows it, Adora is absentmindedly running her fingers gently on Catra’s scalp, with a feather-like touch. The other girl leans her head back on the bed and allows Adora to continue what she’s doing. 

They stay like this and keep watching the movie in silence, breaking it from time to time with a laugh here and there.

Adora is content and Catra? It almost feels like she’s purring.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading =)
> 
> The next few chapters will still be focused on their teenage years, I wanted to show how our lovely ladies were as teenagers and how their relationship developed first, before diving into what happened between them until they run into each other again at the bar.
> 
> The title of this chapter is inspired by a song from my own teenage years, Young Blood by The Naked and the Famous:  
> https://youtu.be/0YuSg4mts9E
> 
> PS: Did anyone get the songs our girls were speaking about?


	4. Welcome home

Catra has just arrived home, closed the door, picked up the mail from the floor and walked up to her room directly.

She arrived home a bit later than usual due to attending Adora’s boxing practice.

“She’s always had so much energy it doesn’t surprise me she’s doing both boxing and basketball. It seems to help her though, it’s good for her I suppose” she mutters to herself as she picks up her phone to text Adora.

“It was nice to see you getting your ass kicked today x)”

She drops the phone on her bed and lays down staring at the ceiling. Her phone buzzes next to her. It’s a reply from Adora:

“Like you could do better -.-”

Catra replies with a smile on her face.

“Of course I could do better, I’m faster remember?” 

“Yeah right. You would break if someone punched you”

“I would not break, I’m a tough bitch”

“That I agree with =)” 

She drops her phone again and glances at the letters she picked up earlier and brought to her room by accident.  _ “I should have left them on the table”  _ as she thinks to herself she picks them up. They are all addressed to her father, one seems to stand out, the envelope seems different from the rest. She decides to open it and her mouth drops, right at the top it states **FORECLOSURE NOTICE** in red bold capital letters. 

Suddenly it felt like curiosity killed the cat.

* * *

Oliver has just arrived home from work. All the lights are off, as he turns them on he jumps when he sees his daughter sitting at the living room table with an unreadable expression. 

“Jesus mi hija, you scared me! What are you doing sitting in the dark?”

Catra looks him in the eye with a piercing, almost soul searching gaze.

“Care to explain this?” 

She proceeds to slide the letter to him. He picks it up and his eyes widen, “No no no no, this can’t be happening”

“Why is it happening though? Don’t you have two jobs? If it’s not enough you could have told me! I could have found a job, I can work even if it's not summer!” 

“I'm so sorry, I'll speak to an attorney and make an appeal, Catra please don’t take this the wrong way. I didn’t want you to work, I wanted you to focus on school... I am so so sorry” 

As he says this he moves over next to his daughter and gives her a big hug as she sobs on his shoulder “Just tell me if we really need to move please…” Catra pleads. 

“I will do my best mi hija” 

* * *

School

It’s lunchtime at the cafeteria, it's full of students eating their meals, Adora, Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio are sitting at the table chatting away. Catra walks over with her tray in hand and sits down as she says “Hi”.

The other kids give each other odd looks. Catra always greets them with some kind of insult, calling people bitches is her favourite. This behaviour is unusual for her, she’s acting more like Rogelio. 

“Sup idiot” Adora nudges her as she says this.

“Hi Catra” Kyle says with a smile.

“Ola” Rogelio adds.

“Hey bitch” Lonnie says.

Catra smiles at them and starts eating. They carry on the conversation, trying to include Catra in, often asking questions and not getting much more than a yes or no answer. She stays mostly quiet throughout their lunch, and her friends noticed she’s not her usual self. 

Lunchtime ends and they all go to their respective classes.

* * *

Bus Stop

Catra and Adora have just left the bus, as it pulls away the blonde girl asks “Catra, you have been awfully quiet today, are you okay?”

“I’m fine” She responds shrugging. 

“You can’t lie to me Catra, I’m your best friend I know when you’re not okay, do you want to talk about it?” 

“Not here” Catra doesn’t look Adora in the eye when saying this. 

“Do you want me to come over?” Adora asks in a caring tone. 

“I would rather not go home” Catra responds, still looking at the floor.

“Oh, then my place?” Adora has a feeling this is about her home situation, maybe about her father.

“Okay” 

“Good, come with me then” As Adora says this she grabs Catra’s hand and they walk together to her place.

Adora opens the door and they immediately go up to her room, Razz is probably sleeping.

When they get to Adora’s room Catra closes the door behind her, walks over to the bean bag and plops down. Adora walks over, places her arm around Catra’s shoulder and holds her without saying anything, she waits for the other girl to open up when she wants to.

Adora knows not to force Catra into saying anything she doesn’t want to say.

A few moments pass until Catra finally speaks up “We got a foreclosure notice” 

Adora’s eyes widened, she didn’t expect this, she expected a fight with her dad over something, anything, but not this.  _ “No No No they can’t do that, they can’t take you away…”  _ Adora thinks to herself but chooses not to say anything out loud.

Adora does not let go of Catra, she asks “Is there anything you can do about it?” 

“Not sure, dad is speaking with an attorney and he’ll let me know. I don’t want to face him right now… I just want at least one more day not knowing if we will lose our house”

“Do you want to stay over?” Adora asks.

Catra finally looks up “That would be nice”

“Cool let’s get dinner, we can watch something funny before bed” 

“Sounds good” 

During dinner Catra still doesn’t speak much, Razz notices something’s up but does not press the girl and just keeps talking as usual.

“How’s your father doing dearie?” 

Catra was afraid of this question, it used to be something so normal, Razz has known him for years after all, and now it unexpectedly became a loaded question, she tries her best to remain neutral. 

“He’s okay, working as usual”

“Oh he works too much, he needs to take a break, tell him that. It’s my recipe for success, I have naps all the time” 

“Will do” Catra responds nodding.

“What success grandma? You sleep all the time ‘cause you’re old” Adora says in a joking tone. 

“Adora dearie let me tell you something, you’re only as old as you feel. And right now I feel 35, you know why? I had a nice nap!”

This makes the girls chuckle, Razz is quite the character. Adora glances at Catra, she’s happy to see her laughing.

After dinner, they go upstairs, as they can’t decide what to watch, they turn on the TV and Gossip Girl is on, they decide to watch it together until it’s time for bed. 

When the show is over Adora asks “Catra do you really need that air mattress today?” 

“Well, where am I supposed to sleep?” Catra asks.

“Ugh we should have thought about this sooner we need to pump the damn thing” 

“Are you lazy, Miss She-Hulk?” Catra smirks at Adora.

“Well… yes I am lazy it was a long day. Can you just sleep on my bed tonight? There’s room for both of us you know” when Adora asks this question it suddenly feels like the room has gotten warmer, even though she can’t figure out why.

Catra is trying her best to maintain a neutral expression, but inside she is freaking out  _ “She wants me to sleep on her bed? There? It’s not even that big! Oh god, why am I warm?” _

She thinks to herself “Fine” is her actual answer, and she is a bit flustered, luckily Adora doesn’t seem to notice.

Adora scoots over and opens the duvet for her, Catra goes over and lays down next to her. She’s as stiff as a wooden plank. 

“Night Catra” Adora says as she turns on her side, back turned to the other girl.

“Night idiot” Catra says, turning on her side and focusing on trying to sleep.

It didn't take long, they were both tired and fell asleep relatively quickly.

The next morning, as it was Saturday, Catra wakes up gently with no loud alarms or dads barging in. As she opens her eyes, she wants to move but notices some light pressure around her waist, as well as soft breathing on the back of her neck, this is when she looks down to see Adora’s arm draped around her. 

Catra can’t seem to move from this position, she was not expecting this, she’s in shock. 

Once her brain is functional again, she starts to notice a lovely warm feeling, it feels good to be held, Catra hasn’t experienced this with anyone else in bed before, she decides to stay in a bit longer and ends up falling back asleep.

When Adora wakes up, she slowly opens her eyes to see the back of Catra’s neck. Her gaze trails down to see her arm around the other girl’s waist “ _ Oh shit when did this happen?”  _ Adora thinks to herself hoping that Catra won’t wake up and get mad at her for invading her personal space. 

Since the other girl is asleep Adora relaxes and thinks to herself  _ “This feels nice”  _ without realising she nuzzles closer to Catra and holds her tighter. She never really did this with anyone, it’s not like she had anything to compare it to, but it made her feel warm, like a sense of home. 

They were childhood best friends, after all, it's familiar and of course, there’s love between them. Adora’s gaze lingers on the back of Catra’s neck “ _ What if?”  _ The thought crosses her mind but she ignores it, choosing instead to give a final squeeze around Catra’s waist and carefully lets her go, as to not wake up the other girl, then she sits up. 

Before leaving the bed she finds herself petting Catra’s head softly and whispering to herself “I hope they don’t take you away…” then she gets out of the bed, stretches and walks out of the room. 

Little did she know, Catra has been awake the whole time, and she is left flustered on Adora’s bed seemingly unable to get up. 

“I hope they don’t take me away too...” She whispers to herself. She doesn’t want to leave this place. She doesn’t want to leave Adora and her friends. She wants to stay and she is silently praying for things to be alright.

* * *

  
  
  


A few days have passed since the sleepover, Catra hadn’t had the courage to speak with her father about the foreclosure notice they received.

One day he brought up the subject when they were having dinner.

“Catra, I know you’re avoiding this topic but we need to talk” 

“Avoiding what?” Catra responds with a shaky voice, trying and failing to hide her nerves. 

“The foreclosure letter mi hija…” Oliver looked at Catra with understanding in his eyes, he knew his daughter was scared, he knew she didn’t want to leave her friends, especially Adora, they’ve been so close since they were children. He doesn’t want to separate them as he knows they might be like sisters, and to be honest, he likes Adora too, she is a good influence on Catra. They balance each other out. He doesn’t mention this to his daughter of course. 

“Dad... I don’t know if I want to hear it” Catra responds looking down at her plate. She’s really not in the mood to have this conversation, the truth is she is still in denial, if she never speaks about this then it’s not happening, it’s not real.

“Look, I can’t say for sure but I might have found help and there is a chance we will be able to stay here. I… I just wanted to wait until I was sure before telling you this, but I can see you are suffering because of this, so please just trust me mi hija… I’ll do the best I can to fix this, I promise” He says with a hopeful look in his eye.

She finally looks up and faces her father “Dad, just please tell me if I can help, I’ll get a job, I’ll help pay for this.” 

“I don’t want that for you mi hija, but if I ever need your help I promise I will let you know” 

This seems to cheer Catra up “Thanks dad” 

* * *

Gym

The school gym is quite spacious, they have a little corner dedicated to martial arts, with a mat and a few punching bags. 

Loud punching noises echo across the gym, someone is punching a bag loudly.

This someone is Adora, releasing all her frustrations onto this poor bag. She has been working out a lot more since Catra told her what happened. Since everything is still up in the air, the uncertainty is driving Adora to endlessly distract herself with exercise so she doesn’t have to face the possibility of losing Catra, of her potentially moving away.

Unbeknownst to her, someone was watching. 

Catra had been searching for Adora for a while, since she wasn’t picking up her phone she figured to try the gym, and here she was, punching away at the bag. She meant to go over to talk to her, yet instead there she was leaning on her side by the wall watching her friend punch the bag. Adora was wearing a tank top and shorts, with her hair up in a bun.

You could see she was in really good shape, toned arms and legs, but not so much that would make her look bulky.

_ “She’s definitely working out all the time”  _ Catra thinks to herself before finally going over.

She approaches Adora from behind “Hey Adora” she says in a more flirty tone than she intended.

This startles the other girl, Adora pauses to catch her breath and turns to Catra 

“Hi Catra, you scared me!”

Catra laughs “That was the intention dummy” 

“Jesus, don’t do this shit please” Adora pleads.

“I make no such promises” Catra says, smirking at the other girl. 

“Fuck you” Adora says “Why were you looking for me?” 

“It’s about the thing.” Catra says not wanting to mention the word foreclosure as it is still too heavy of a subject.

Adora starts taking off her gloves “Any news on that?” she asks, afraid of the answer.

“Well… Dad says he might be getting some help, he says things can turn out alright he just can’t say for sure yet” Catra says this in a surprisingly soft tone.

“Oh! That’s good news! See things will be alright” Adora conveys this with a big smile on her face. 

“Bitch chill, nothing is guaranteed yet, but at least things are looking up” Catra responds, definitely making an effort to be positive.

“You’ll be alright you idiot” Adora responds in a soft tone whilst nudging Catra’s shoulder.

“Yeah I guess so, anyway what are you up to tonight?” Catra asks. 

“Well nothing I guess” Adora replies.

“Wanna hang out?” Catra asks. 

“Sure! Wanna come to mine and watch something or play games?” 

“Yeah sounds good to me, I’ll see you later then, bye bitch” Catra waves and starts walking away. Adora suddenly grabs her wrist and pulls her into a hug.

“You’ll be okay Catra” She says whilst hugging the other girl.

Catra wasn’t expecting this at all, her face starts getting a bit red as she says “Yeah thanks” then she lets go of Adora and says “By the way you stink”

“Idiot!” Adora says whilst punching Catra’s arm.

Catra just laughs “Bye Adora” 

* * *

  
  


Later that day Catra finds herself outside of Adora’s house, she knocks. The door opens and Razz greets her “Oh hello dearie! Come in” 

“Hi Madame Razz, thanks” Catra walks in.

“Catra dearie how are you doing? Can I get you anything?” 

“Oh I’m alright thanks, how are you? And no thanks I have some snacks with me, do you want some nachos?”

“I’m doing great, just had a nice nap! Don’t worry about the food you girls enjoy it, Adora’s upstairs” Razz smiles at the young girl whilst saying this.

“How is your father dearie?” 

“Oh he’s alright, working all the time the usual”

“Tsk tsk your father needs to learn the art of napping, working too much is bad for your health, it doesn’t allow you to take your naps! Tell him to get some rest for me will you dearie?” Razz asks Catra, she appears genuinely concerned.

“Thanks Razz and I will let him know don’t worry” Catra smiles at the older lady.

“It’s alright dearie, go on upstairs and enjoy your nachos”

“Thank you, see you later” Catra starts going upstairs until she finds herself by Adora’s room and knocks. Nothing, she knocks again but it seems like nobody is in the room.  _ “She must be in the toilet or something”  _ She opens the door and finds the room empty.

Catra walks over to the bean bag and plops down, leaving the bag by her side. She turns on the TV and waits. 

A while later the door opens and Adora walks in humming a song, too distracted to notice someone was in her room. She had just taken a shower and was wrapped up in a towel, with another towel covering her hair. Then it hits her  _ “Wait I didn’t leave the TV on”  _ that’s when she finally sees Catra, sitting on the beanbag looking like a startled cat. 

“Oh hi Catra! Didn’t know you were here already” 

Catra looks flustered “Yeah and you scared the crap out of me, how about knocking first?”

“Uh why would I knock before getting in my own room?” Adora shrugs.

“Damn it yeah well just don’t scare the shit out of me next time, I’ll let you be” As she says this she gets up from the bean bag and walks out of Adora’s room.

The other girl is just standing there for a bit, then starts getting dressed, when she’s done she calls Catra back in. 

“Come in idiot” 

“Coming fuck face” 

Adora punches her arm on the way in, Catra heads back to her usual spot on the beanbag.

“What do you wanna watch?” Adora asks. 

“I brought something” As she says this she pulls out a DVD, it’s The Shining.

“Catra… you know I don’t like horror movies”

“Pussy, this is a Kubrick film, an absolute classic let’s just watch it” Catra says in a teasing tone. “Besides I brought nachos” 

“Ugh fine, thanks for the nachos and the nightmares I’ll surely have” 

“Cool” Catra puts on the DVD and they settle down to watch the movie, Adora is sitting on the bed and Catra on the beanbag. 

They watch the movie and anytime Adora gets startled Catra finds a way to tease her “Come on girl, they’re just two little girls in blue dresses, how is that scary?” 

“Come on Adora it’s just a kid on a tricycle” 

“Come on Adora, it’s just Johnny”

When the movie finished, Adora was scared shitless “Catra I will most definitely have nightmares, I can’t believe you made me watch that” 

“It’s just a movie Adora chill! Want a joint?” Catra offers a truce.

“Yes please, and then something funny to watch!” 

“Sure” 

They smoke and start watching funny videos on Youtube, they laugh and poke fun at each other as usual. The night is going really well. Then it’s time for bed “Catra you don’t need the inflatable mattress right?” Adora asks pleadingly.

“No idiot, I’ll just sleep with you, scoot over”

Adora obliges with a smile as Catra gets in the bed, this time they’re lying facing each other. Adora breaks the silence first “I don’t want more horror movies” she says in a serious tone. 

“I make no such promises” Catra responds teasingly. 

“You are impossible” Adora says, then she gets closer to Catra, places an arm around her waist and places her forehead on the crook of the other girl’s neck “Just hold me for a while. I’ll try not to think of the movie” 

Catra was not expecting this at all, when she gets over the initial shock she holds Adora back and they end up cuddling until they fall asleep. 

* * *

Catra and Adora fell into a pattern of having at least one sleepover per week, usually at Adora’s house because she had a TV and DVD player in her room.

This became their new normal. They also became more affectionate with each other.

Catra wasn’t sure what was going on, neither was Adora, both of them just accepted this as part of their close friendship. Somehow it felt right.

Of course, this didn’t stop the jokes from their friends at school, when they got into their weird competitions, or when they were close and affectionate with each other, which was something that was happening more often lately. It didn’t help that it was a known fact that Catra wasn’t a big fan of physical contact with most people.

It seemed like they were more than friends to anyone who met them. But both girls would deny these claims. In their view this was a normal part of their friendship. 

Neither of them seemed to question it.

* * *

A few months later

One day Catra arrived home from school, when she noticed there was a police car right outside her house. 

“What the fuck…” She mutters to herself quickly picking up her pace to find out what’s happening. 

Once she goes in she finds her father in handcuffs and two police officers talking to him.

“Dad! What the hell is going on?!” At this point Catra is panicking, she’s not sure what to do in this situation, why would anyone try to arrest her father in the first place?

“Catra, please calm down…” Her father pleads, he looks like he’s about to break.

The police officers exchange a glance then turn to Catra “Hi my name is Mike and this is officer Andrea” 

“You must be Catra” Andrea says.

“What is happening?” Catra asks, trying to remain calm.

“Well… Andrea will take you to another room to ask you a few questions if that’s okay” Officer Mike says to Catra.

“What, questions? Why?” Catra is having a really difficult time remaining calm, she’s jittery and at the verge of tears. 

“It’s just a procedure, we need to do this. I'm sorry, do you need to get anything before we go into another room?” Andrea speaks in an understanding tone.

_ “At least she’s being nice”  _ Catra thinks to herself “I’m fine, let me just get some water first, we can go upstairs” She says to the officer and proceeds to go to the kitchen to get some water. Once she’s back she announces:

“Follow me” Then starts going upstairs, the officer follows, when they’re in her room Catra asks:

“Do you want to sit down?” 

“Only if you’re sitting as well” 

“Sure” Catra sits on the bed whilst the officer takes the chair and then takes out a notepad.

“Will you tell me what’s going on?” Catra asks. 

“Yes, but first I need to ask you a few questions” 

“Okay” Catra is terrified and working hard to hide this.

“We already have your name, can you tell me how old you are?” Andrea speaks in a soft tone, she’s aware of the young girl's nervousness with the situation and is trying her best to not seem threatening.”

“I’m 16”

“Do you study? If so, where? And are you working at the moment?” 

“Yes, I go to Fright Zone High, and no I don’t have a job”

“Okay, do you know where your father works?” 

“Yeah he has two jobs, he’s a waiter at a place called Mario’s Cantina and he works as a mechanic at Los Santos Customs.”

“Do you know if he has another job?” 

“Uh no, how could he? He already has two jobs” Catra has no idea where this is going. 

“Okay, does he often come home late?” 

“Yeah he has two jobs, sometimes he finishes late” 

“How late, on average?” 

“Uh I’m not sure, I’m usually sleeping by then, he’s usually off on Monday and comes home earlier on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it’s when we have dinner together” 

“Okay, can you tell me if he works weekends?”

“Yeah many of them unfortunately” Catra looks down when saying this.

The officer is writing down all the answers on her notepad. “Did you know about the foreclosure notice?” She looks at Catra with a serious expression.

Catra wasn’t expecting them to know about this, but then again, they’re the police they must have a way of finding out about these things “Yeah… He said was able to get help though” 

“Do you know what kind of help?” 

“Uh no, I thought he just borrowed some money or something, he mentioned speaking with an attorney maybe he helped” Catra doesn’t know what to say about this, the truth is she didn’t want to talk about it with her father, she didn’t want to know. Maybe there was a reason she was avoiding this topic, something other than the fear of leaving. Maybe subconsciously she knew something was not right. 

“Thank you, miss Catra I’m truly sorry you have to go through this, I know you’re telling me the truth and I appreciate it. You don’t need to worry about getting in trouble with us or anything, we just needed to ask you these questions, I hope you understand” The officer speaks in a soft tone when saying this. 

“Okay, so are you going to tell me what happened?” 

“I understand that desperate times call for desperate measures. Unfortunately, even if you do have your reasons, breaking the law is not a long term solution, you can get in trouble” 

“Wha… What kind of trouble?” Catra’s heart starts beating faster. 

“It seems like your father started working for a criminal organization, we are currently investigating this to find out who it is exactly. If he told us who, we might be able to make an appeal and reduce his sentence. He was caught stealing expensive vehicles, bringing them in, painting them, making any kind of modifications needed and shipping them away, presumably to potential buyers” 

“What??!?” Catra’s heart feels like it will beat out of her chest, her eyes widen. She can’t breathe, her heart is beating faster and faster “Oh my god, I might be having a heart attack” The fear she feels is indescribable, she’s struggling to breathe or think straight, she thinks she’s going to die, tears start streaming down her face, she’s shaking and she feels really cold.

The officer sees this and walks over to her, places a hand softly on her back “Shh you’ll be okay, this is not an heart attack, it’s a panic attack” 

“What?” Catra continues to panic, she never felt this before. 

“Focus on breathing, inhale all the way in, fill your lungs slowly, hold for 20 seconds, then release slowly, do this repeatedly until you feel better. You will be okay, don’t worry” The officer has seen this many times before, she knows the only thing that truly helps is the breathing exercises as they eventually calm people down.

Catra complies, she does the breathing exercises, over and over, until she starts slowly calming down. When she seems calmer she drinks some water and looks up at the officer. 

“Thanks, what will happen to him?” Catra is terrified of the answer, but she needs to know.

“Well, he will have the right to a fair trial.”

“What, fair trial? Oh god… When?” Catra starts shaking again, her tears are coming back. 

The officer places a hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure the young girl.

“This is off the record, if anyone asks I didn’t say anything. But for what it’s worth, I’ve been working in the force for 20 years, in this time I can say I have become a good judge of character. He does not seem like a bad person, I truly believe he did it out of desperation to keep the house, to keep a roof over your head. He cares about you, people make mistakes but this does not make them bad people, remember that okay?” Andrea has a soft smile and is genuinely trying to help the young girl, as she knows this is not an easy situation. 

“Thanks, you’ve been nice to me, I appreciate it” Catra says, wiping away the tears.

“No problem at all, now, since you are a minor I need to ask, do you have any other relatives you can stay with?” 

“Uh no. It’s just us now. But I can stay at my friends house, she lives 5 minutes away with her grandmother.” 

“Good, I might have to leave you at the care of your friends' grandmother for the time being.”

Catra looks up at the officer “For the time being?” 

“Until we know what will happen to your father, you’re still a minor we can’t leave you on your own.” 

“Uh, okay, I guess I need to pack, can I talk to him?” 

“Sure, why don’t you start packing first? Then meet us downstairs we’ll give you some time with your father” 

“Okay”

The officer leaves the room. When Catra finally finds herself on her own she brings her face to her hands and lets out her tears freely, she does this until she can’t cry anymore.

When she finally builds up the courage to start packing she starts by picking up the essentials, her clothes, shoes, her school stuff, basically everything she can fit in a trolley, a cross shoulder duffel bag and a backpack. She finds a normal plastic bag, then walks to the toilet to pick up her toiletries. 

When she’s finished with the packing she looks around her room, not knowing when she will be back, this situation is the scariest she’s been in, at least from what she can remember.

She heads downstairs. 

Her father is still in handcuffs but seems comfortable sitting on the couch, the officers are sitting in the chairs by the dinner table.

“Hi miss Catra, are you ready?” 

“Yeah, can I talk to him?” She places her bags down.

“Sure, we’ll be in the kitchen” Mike says and Andrea nods.

When the officers leave the room Catra runs to her father and hugs him tightly. She starts sobbing on his shoulder “Is it true?” She asks.

Oliver is crying too, he can’t hold in the tears, the feeling of guilt, the fear of leaving his daughter “I’m so sorry Catra, I'm so... so sorry… I just wanted to keep our house. I wanted you to have a roof over your head, to continue going to school with your friends…”

“But dad I could have gotten a job or something, you told me you would let me know if you needed help! Why did you lie??” Catra’s vision is blurry, she can’t stop crying, this time she is sitting next to her father, facing him.

“Because mi hija, it wouldn’t have been enough, even if you got a job it wouldn’t have been enough to pay for this, I’m so sorry, I messed up. I couldn’t have a proper job to pay for this house, these shitty minimum wage jobs are not enough, I thought I could make it work, I was wrong…” His guilt is eating him up inside, he can’t hold in the tears.

“God dad, just tell them, tell them who you’re working for! They’ll reduce your sentence” She pleads to her father, she wants him to come back as soon as possible. 

“Oh Catra, if it were that simple that’s what I would do, but I want you to be safe, and I want to be here for you when I’m out”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Catra asks, this time anger is rising up, why can’t he just rat on those assholes so he can come home sooner? Does he want to stay away for who knows how long? 

“Catra there are things you don’t understand, and it’s okay, I know you will be fine because you have your guardian angel, you always did, this presence will protect you and you will be okay, I know this with all my heart.” Oliver looks his daughter in the eye, hoping she listens, he truly believes what he is saying, he knows his daughter has some kind of energy protecting her, even if she doesn’t believe it. She is alive after all, surviving the accident was all the proof he needed.

“UGH Fuck that guardian angel shit! Seriously dad?! You’re probably going to prison and you’re okay leaving me here with my imaginary fucking angel? If he’s so real where is he now uh? They’re taking you away!” Catra can’t hold in her anger anymore, she’s lashing out at her father, she can’t believe he’s bringing in this guardian angel bulshit at a time like this. 

“Catra, anger won’t solve your problems or mine, remaining calm is always better, remember this. People won’t listen to you when you lash out, and you might say things you regret. I know because I used to be like you when I was younger, I had to learn how to calm down. Please, even if you don’t believe what I’m telling you, have some respect. We should respect other people’s beliefs even if they are different from our own. It’s important to talk to people who think differently too, rather than trying to prove them wrong, it’s good to listen, different beliefs and opinions will show you things you might have not considered before, and you could always learn something new.” 

“Dad I don’t have to agree with you!”

“You’re right you don’t. No need to agree, just show some respect and don’t immediately shrug something off just because you don’t believe it.” 

“God… Fine! Fuck it whatever” Catra hugs her father not wanting to continue this topic, it just makes her angrier, and now is not the time for that, she’ll be angry later.

He tries to hug her back, as much as he can at least, because of the handcuffs. 

Suddenly they hear someone clear their throat, both officers are standing there “We need to go, are you ready?” Andrea asks.

“No…” “No.” They both answer in unison.

“I’m sorry but we need to go.” Officer Mike speaks up.

They let go of each other, Catra gets up to pick up her bags, her father stands up while officer Mike holds him by the arm. 

“I’ll take you to the car while my colleague will take your daughter to stay at the care of an adult” 

“Razz?” Oliver looks at Catra whilst asking this.

“Yes dad” Catra responds.

“See mi hija, your guardian angel is already placing someone in your path to help you out.” 

“Ugh! Yeah sure” Catra is really trying not to get angry right now, as much as she can at least, as her father is making it rather difficult.

“Te amo Catra, ten cuidado, mantente a salvo, estarás bien.” Oliver is trying to hold back the tears in his eyes.

“Te amo papá, vuelve rápido…” Catra is not successful in holding it in, tears are running down her face.

Andrea helps Catra with her bag and asks “Where are we going?” 

“Over there” Catra points in the direction of Adora’s house.

They walk over to the house and the officer rings the doorbell. The door opens, it’s Razz and she’s standing there, looking completely confused at the whole situation.

“Catra dearie what happened? Are you okay?” The older lady asks with a worried tone.

“Hi, you must be madame Razz I presume?” The officer asks. 

“Well yes that’s me, and you are?” 

“My name is Andrea and I’m here because miss Catra has informed me that her friend lives here with her grandmother and she could potentially stay here for a while?” 

“Well yes of course! I’ve known her since she was a child. She's like a sister to my Adora.”

Catra cringes at the word sister, but she doesn’t say anything of course, she’s just awkwardly standing there with puffy eyes and lost puppy look.

“Well this is good news, at least she will have some support during this time, can you please sign this paper to prove that you are temporarily responsible for a minor, in this case miss Catra?” 

“Well of course miss officer, what happened to Oliver?” Razz finally asks, she had a feeling this was about Catra’s father the moment she opened the door.

Andrea hands her a pen and paper “Well… That’s not my story to tell, you will need to check with miss Catra”

Razz has placed the paper on the wall to sign it, she quirks an eyebrow at the officer’s response. She knows she can’t blame her for not wanting to tell “Of course, dearie you can tell me when you’re ready to, no rush” When she’s finished signing the papers she hands them to the officer.

“Thank you madame Razz, goodbye Catra” She says this and leaves the young girl with Razz.

“Well come on in dearie don’t just stand there, welcome home” Razz offers a gentle smile at the young girl.

When Catra walks in she mutters a low “Thanks” then she’s crushed into a hug, Razz is holding her tight. 

“You will be alright dearie you will see, things will get better, they have a way of working themselves out in the end. You can stay as long as you need to” 

This time she can’t hold it in anymore, she breaks down in Razz's arms, sobbing.

She didn’t notice that Adora was sitting on the stairs, in shock. She had been there the whole time. 

When Razz finally lets Catra go “Go on dearie, Adora is sitting on the stairs”

“Uh?” Catra appears confused, then looks in the direction of the stairs.

“Grandma! How did you know?” Adora asks whilst standing up.

“Oh dearie I know many things! Don’t underestimate the granny sixth sense”

“What on earth is that?” 

“A grandmother always knows when her grandchildren are lurking around! Why do you think we always have food ready for you?” 

This makes Catra chuckle for the first time since this whole nightmare started, Razz and her weird theories will do that for you.

This makes Adora smile too, she then runs to Catra to give her the biggest, tightest hug she possibly can.

“Adora! Ugh don’t crush me with your She-Hulk arms!” Catra says seemingly out of breath. 

Adora loosens her grip and yet doesn’t let go. 

“Welcome home Catra” she says in a loving tone.

Maybe, just maybe, Catra will be okay.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was a long one, thank you for reading =)


	5. A night to remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe you gave me 43 kudos this is so much more than I ever expected, thank you so much everyone it means a lot! <3
> 
> PS: I didn't anticipate spending so long on their teenage years but there's still a lot to tell, please bear with me for a couple more chapters before returning to the present =)
> 
> There is one french sentence in this chapter: Quoi de neuf putain?  
> This is basically the slang term for what's up bitch in french FYI

The next morning Catra wakes up from the shittiest sleep she’s had in a long time. She kept waking up, tossing and turning. She knows she was probably a terrible person to sleep next to, she felt a pang of guilt for potentially messing up Adora’s sleep. Yet, the blonde girl was softly petting Catra’s head, it felt nice to wake up like that, even if she didn’t know how long Adora had been doing that for.

“Morning sleepyhead” Adora was the first to speak.

“Morning” 

“How are you feeling?” Adora asks, trying not to sound worried.

“Like a cat being petted” Catra replies, deflecting the subject.

Adora smiles, she does not press the other girl. She will let her speak when she’s ready “Does said cat like to be petted?”

Catra turns around to face Adora, she looks her in the eye with an unreadable expression “Yes” she replied briefly.

“Good” As she says this Adora places her arm around the other girl, allowing her to lean on the crook of her neck, she starts slowly running soft circles with her fingernails on Catra’s back. This makes her relax into the touch and just lay there comfortably, enjoying the nice feeling. After a while Catra starts doing the same thing, gently running her nails on the blonde’s back.

Neither of them know how long this was going on for, suddenly there is a knock on the door, then it opens.

“My dearies are you awake?” It’s Razz, she didn’t bother waiting for a response before barging in.

This makes the girls jump apart, both startled and flustered, Catra sits up on the bed and Adora replies to her grandmother “Yes grandma, what is it?” 

Adora wasn’t expecting her grandmother to bother them, she normally only barges in to wake her up for school.

“I had a phone call for Catra, seems like they will be taking your father to Beast Island prison to wait for the trial when you get a phone call from that place it will most likely be your father. This was the news, I’m so sorry dearie, I can understand why you didn’t want to talk about it yesterday”

Catra clutches the blanket without saying anything, Adora grabs one of her hands and reassures her without words.

“Catra when you’re ready you’ll find a surprise for you downstairs” Razz smiles softly at the young girl.

“What is it?” Catra asks.

“Now now dearie if I were to tell you it wouldn’t be a surprise would it?” With this, the older lady winks at her and leaves the room. 

When the door is closed again, Catra is enveloped in a hug, Adora kisses her cheek and tells her “We’re here for you Catra, whatever you need. My grandma and I will help you.”

Catra is trying not to cry “Thanks” she says with a scratchy voice.

“Do you want to check out your surprise?” Adora asks, trying to cheer up the other girl.

“Honestly? Knowing Razz it’s probably pie, I’d go for pie right now I could use the sugar” Catra retorts.

Adora chuckles, even Catra can see how predictable her grandmother can be sometimes. 

“You might be right, pie for breakfast does sound good thought” 

“Yeah, let’s go then” 

When they get to the kitchen it seems like Catra was right, it turned out to be a blueberry pie.

“Thanks Razz, this is amazing” Catra voices to the older woman.

“Oh no problem at all dearie! I thought you could use some sugar right now” Razz smiles at the young girl.

“Ah yes you’re right I totally could, thank you” Catra smiles back at Razz, genuinely.

* * *

Since Catra has been staying with Razz and Adora she decided to help out around the house, she would do some chores, try her best to clean up after herself, she would not leave random clothes scattered around Adora’s floor, unlike her own bedroom, something she missed.

Catra was feeling down for obvious reasons, she couldn’t stop thinking about her dad, and she didn’t want to impose on Razz, who she knew, didn’t have much, to begin with. Catra had worked on her CV and was looking to find a job to be able to support herself. The girls had agreed to keep this a secret, nobody at the school knew what was going on besides their closest friends, Kyle, Rogelio and Lonny. They had been very supportive, sometimes showing up at Adora’s house with a bunch of food claiming they would make a nice dinner. Usually Razz saved them from themselves with the cooking, but the gestures were appreciated nonetheless.

During this time Catra had been trying her best to not become more of a nuisance than what she already felt she was to her hosts. 

What she didn’t know, however, was the fact that she was not being considered a nuisance at all. Adora loved having Catra around, it felt great to have a roommate, and Catra always respected her space, they didn’t need to be in the same room all the time, they respected each other’s privacy and left each other alone. 

One of the things Adora had to learn from Catra throughout the years was to be comfortable with silence. When they were younger Adora simply didn’t know when to shut up, she thought she constantly needed to say something, that being in silence with someone was awkward somehow.

Catra on the other hand, was perfectly comfortable with silence if she didn’t have anything to say it didn’t bother her, she was fine with just chilling. She was always comfortable with being alone and claimed she needed her alone time for her sanity.

Initially, Adora didn’t understand this at all, she felt like she had to entertain somehow, how could one be with someone in silence anyway? However, in time, she saw that was just who Catra was, she was okay with silence and needed her own alone time and her own space. As time passed, Adora became comfortable sitting in silence with Catra, they could be doing their own thing and just chill, alone together in a way.

Sharing a room was something different for both of them, as neither had siblings growing up. Somehow, perhaps due to the fact that they knew each other so well, it worked out. 

This was only temporary after all. 

* * *

  
  


Catra is in Adora’s room studying or at least trying to. The blonde is not home, she's at her boxing practice. 

The phone rings, Catra’s mismatched eyes gaze at the screen and find that it’s an unknown caller. She answers the phone.

“Hello?” 

An automated message stated “You are receiving a phone call from Beast Island correctional facility, would you like to accept the charges?” 

Catra’s eyes widen “Yes” 

“Hi Catra, how are you doing mi hija?” 

“Hey Dad, I’m okay, how are you doing?” 

“Well not too bad considering the circumstances, I get along with my cellmate quite well and he's been nice to me, I suppose it could have been much worse. Enough about that, how's school?”

“Huh that’s good to hear dad, school’s alright I was just studying when you called.” Catra was trying her best to sound okay, even though it killed her to hear her father from prison.

“Oh that’s good! Keep studying okay? You must do better than your old man, you’re a smart girl I know you can go far” 

“Thanks dad, I will don’t worry. What have they told you? How long do you need to stay in there?” She needed to ask, this was on her mind pretty much all the time, she needed to know.

“Oh, I don’t know yet, they’ve appointed a lawyer and I will know soon enough when the trial will be.” Oliver is nervous, he’s trying to hide this from his daughter. 

“Tell me as soon as you can okay?” 

“I will don’t worry. I just wanted to hear your voice, I miss you. How are you doing with Razz and Adora?”

Catra misses her dad more than anything, she wants this over as soon as possible “I miss you too dad, they’ve been amazing, Razz even made me pie, I’m okay you don’t need to worry about me, when can I visit you?” 

“I’m not sure, you know as much as I miss you. It is my duty as your father to protect you, it might be best for you not to see me in here… Not like this” The pain in his voice is obvious. Catra picks this up.

“What the fuck are you on about? No way in hell I’m not visiting! I will visit as soon as it’s possible to do so! I just don’t know why you’re so far away…” 

“Language Catra! I mean, I want to see you, I just don’t want you to see me like this…”

“You might be a prisoner but you're still my dad and you will always be so shut up, I’ll visit and that’s it, you get no choice!” Catra states with a determined tone. 

“Fine I guess I can’t stop you then, I’ll let you know when that’s possible okay? Stay strong mi hija, I know you’re in good company and I'll let you know things as they develop.” 

“Good, thanks Dad, and yes please do that! You stay strong you might need it more” 

“I will, oh they’re saying my time is up, I’m so sorry mi hija I have to go, I love you, say hi to Adora and Razz for me, thank them for everything” 

“Bye dad, I love you too” 

As soon as the call ends Catra starts crying for what seems like ages, this won’t be easy. She’s just hoping things will be alright somehow.

* * *

A few weeks later 

Bakery 

Adora walks into the bakery, it has easily become one of her favourite places.

Not only does it smell amazing because of the fresh bread, it has all kinds of pastries, cakes and sweets on display, it also has Catra working there with a cute little pink apron, totally looking adorable in it, even though she would never let Adora say it. Another benefit is that she can get free stuff because of her friend and she has more ammunition to use to tease her, she knows Catra despises her apron, and anything pink really.

Since starting to work at the bakery she hasn’t been home as much, clearly, but she seems happy to have her own money and help around the house. Adora knows Razz needed financial help, as much as she didn’t want Catra to work she understood why she did.

As she waits by the counter, drooling at the pastries, the door right behind the counter opens and Catra comes out carrying some freshly baked baguettes.

“Bonjour madame idiote” Adora greets her in the shittiest french accent possible.

Catra raises an eyebrow, she knew Adora only butchered french because she was carrying baguettes, how typical “Quoi de neuf putain?" 

“Uh what does that mean?” 

"Give up you can’t speak french” Catra shrugs “Look it up I ain’t telling you” Then she carries on walking to place the bread in its respective place. 

“Ughh fine, what time do you finish?” Adora's frustration is visible but she decides not to go into it.

"Around 8 PM depending on when everything is clean, why?” 

“Well there is going to be a party at Chad’s house, his parents are away, I thought it would be cool to go have fun” Adora asks, hopeful, she knows Catra isn’t fond of high school house parties, but it’s not like they can just go to a bar right now, so that’ll have to do, besides it can be fun if you go with the right people. 

“Why the fuck would I want to go to that jock’s house? We’ve literally never spoken to each other outside of class” 

“Because it’s a party Catra! Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio are coming too and we can have fun! There is no need to socialise with him there” 

“Really? Your plan is to go to this dude’s house and not talk to him all night?” Catra quirks an eyebrow when saying this. 

“That’s not what I meant. He’s not that bad, he’s actually nice if you give him a chance, he plays basketball too and has given me a few pointers. Look we say hi but we don’t have to hang out. It could just be our little group hanging out at a party, what do you say?” Adora’s blue eyes almost shine, showing the best cute puppy look she can muster.

“Ugh fine whatever, what time are you guys going?” Catra gives in to her puppy look, she can’t resist when Adora does this, almost like a dog begging to play. She will never admit it out loud to anyone though, she knows the blonde girl can make her do pretty much anything with that look. 

“Yay! We’re waiting for you dummy, they’ll be at mine and then we go together, we can actually walk it’s like 30 minutes max” 

“Okay then, couldn't you have texted instead of coming all the way here?” 

“Well... two reasons, one you needed to see me in order to say yes, and two I want free cake” 

This makes Catra chuckle “Sure let me get some for you” 

* * *

  
  


The party 

Loud music can be heard from outside the house. The friend group showed up and everyone looked cool, and yes even Kyle. 

Lonnie wore black skinny jeans with white converse shoes and a super cool bomber jacket with this tiger in the back, she wore her braids in a ponytail and even had a bit of makeup on.

Rogelio was wearing a dark blue dress shirt and jeans, complete with his favourite nikes.

Kyle managed to put on ripped jeans and a black dress shirt as well as an aviator jacket, everyone was surprised when they first saw him, "Too bad you forgot about doing something to your hair" was the only mean comment Catra could come up with. 

Catra was wearing a biker leather jacket with ripped black jeans and a dark grey t-shirt with studs in the collar, the look was completed with biker boots, she put on makeup too, she wore cat-like eyeliner and dark lipstick. Adora couldn't take her eyes off her since she first saw how she decided to dress up, there's something about Catra's style together with her natural beauty that makes her even more attractive than if she just dressed "normally". Adora loved it, not that she would say anything of course.

Adora surprised everyone when she actually put on a dress, something she rarely did. It was a really flowy, sleeveless, knee-length red dress and she wore this with white sneakers, her hair was loose and she did put on some makeup too, soft pink eyeshadow and lipstick. Catra immediately called her Lily Allen when she first saw the outfit and had been singing Smile to her anytime she had the chance, this didn’t make Adora particularly happy, but of course, there had to be some teasing. Plus she looked beautiful, not that Catra would say that out loud, but her mismatched gaze had been set on the blonde since she first saw her.

Dressed to nines as old people would say, right outside the door, Adora was about to knock when suddenly the door opens and this random girl says “hi” then walks past them. They end up staring at the entrance for a while until Lonnie breaks the silence by asking:

“Shall we just go in?”

“Sure let’s go guys!” Adora says excitedly, this makes Catra roll her eyes but for once she doesn’t say anything. 

As soon as they go in they hear the loud music blasting over the speakers, there are some people dancing, there are some people sitting on the couch, some people making out in a corner, it looks like another typical high school party.

“Where’s the booze? I need it if I want to be able to put up with this” Catra asks while gesturing to her surroundings “And this god awful crappy shit they call music” 

“Probably the kitchen? And don’t worry they’ll change the music soon!” Kyle says, hoping to reassure Catra. 

They see Rogelio speak to a random person and then saying “Kitchen is over there follow me” 

As soon as enter the kitchen, sure enough, there is plenty of beer, and well, more beer. It seems like there isn’t much of a choice as far as drinks go so they take one beer each and go out to the backyard. It’s a nice place, plenty of space and the backyard is quite nice, with a few plants and a big patch of grass, a covered area with a table and a few chairs. A barbecue and grass, where most kids seem to be sitting at the moment. 

The group makes their way to a patch of grass and sit down, they start drinking their beers and chatting. Every once in awhile they see someone they know, greet them, speak for a bit, but most people don’t hang around too long.

Adora nudges Catra’s shoulder and asks “So... is this so bad?” 

“Not really but that’s because we're sitting on the grass like the bunch of renegades we are” 

“Renegades really?” Lonnie asks with a raised eyebrow, then sips on her beer. 

“I mean who else sits on the grass away from the party?” Catra replies. 

“Uh she might have a point” Kyle adds.

“Do you want to go inside then?” Adora asks.

“No” Catra responds, everyone else just shrugs. 

They hear someone yell out “Adora!” there is a guy waving in their direction. Adora turns around and says “Hi Chad!” then gets up to go talk to him. 

“I almost forget she’s friends with jocks” Lonnie says. 

“Uh she is a jock and so is Rogelio! Have you forgotten? We are friends with jocks too” Kyle points out. 

“Yeah he’s right you know” Rogelio adds. 

Catra doesn’t say anything, she’s too busy looking at the way Adora and this Chad guy are interacting, all friendly and smiley. And the guy is hot too, not that she’s into jocks but he is attractive, dark hair and green eyes, tall and actually makes an effort in the way he dresses, unlike many other guys at their school. 

She knows why he’s popular with girls. But Adora really? She can do better, the guy is probably dumb as a rock. Yeah, he has to be, he has to have some flaw, you can’t just be that perfect. 

Whilst this inner monologue is going on she completely loses track of time and misses the fact that her friends have stopped talking, they’re staring at her and giving each other looks. Not that Catra notices. She only notices when Adora is walking back to the group with Chad. 

“Hey guys, this is Chad, he’s on the basketball team and well this is his house” 

“Hi I’m Lonnie, nite to meet you” 

“Hi I’m Kyle nice to meet you” 

“Hey Chad” Rogelio already knows him.

“Hi, Catra” Is her curt reply.

“Hi guys! Nice to meet you all, it’s nice to meet Adora’s friends, I already know Rogelio and he’s great really, we’re teammates as you know.” He proceeds to sit down with the group on the grass and Adora sits right next to him.

“Oh cool, so how do you know Adora?” Kyle asks.

“Oh we met at the school gym, I saw her practising basketball and asked if I could join. We train together sometimes she’s great” Chad smiles when saying this. 

“Aw thanks, you helped me with my practice many times” Adora smiles back. 

Catra glares at him, not entirely sure why she doesn’t like the idea of these two playing basketball together. She stops when she hears a lighter, Lonny was lighting up a joint.

“Wanna join us in our peace pipe celebration?” Lonnie asks Chad. 

“Cool I’d love to! I asked so many people before the party and nobody had any weed, I really wasn’t expecting this” He responds. 

“Oh, we can get it sometimes, just let me know” Adora says to him. 

“Cool I will” 

They sit there chatting and smoking, apart from Catra who is mostly silent, and glaring at Chad. He doesn’t seem bothered by this, she doesn’t understand why. 

Adora is shivering and he asks “Are you cold? Do you want my jacket?” 

“Oh, what about you?” Adora asks. 

“Don’t worry about me I'm fine” He smiles, takes his jacket off and places it on Adora’s shoulders. 

“Thanks” She smiles back.

 _“Oh so he thinks he’s a gentleman”_ Catra thinks to herself, she gets up and decides to go for drinks “Anyone want anything to drink?” 

“Yes please! Beer or whatever they have really” Chad asks, still smiling.

“I’ll help you” Adora says as she gets up from the grass.

  
They walk together to the house. 

“So are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Adora asks whilst they’re walking.

“What do you mean? Nothing’s going on” Catra responds defensively.

“Bitch please! I’ve known you most of my life, somethings up, besides you’ve been glaring at Chad the whole time! What did he do to you? Adora asks. 

“What? Nothing! He didn’t do anything, why would I be glaring?” 

Adora narrows her eyes, she knows Chad is a nice guy, really he is. So, of course, he didn’t do anything to her friends, she couldn’t get what Catra’s deal was. _“Is it because he’s a jock? But I’m a jock and so is Rogelio, makes no sense”_ Adora thinks to herself. 

They arrive in the kitchen to find a game of beer pong happening, how cliche. 

When they get their beers the game is over, they look at each other silently daring the one another to speak first. Of course, Adora had to speak first:

“Want to play?” 

“Why should I?” 

“Bitch we’re gonna play if I lose I will leave you alone and let you sulk all you want if I win you tell me what the hell is your problem, deal?” Adora speaks in a defiant tone.

“Ugh fine if it makes you so happy” 

They place the glasses in a triangle formation fill each one with beer halfway then start the game, it starts out pretty badly for Catra who ends up drinking a lot of beer, and then, maybe it was the alcohol, she picks up the game, starts getting the ball in the cups and Adora ends up drinking more.

In the end, they’re both pretty much fucked as they don’t normally drink, and Adora lost. 

Catra mustered the evilest laugh she could “Muahahaha I win and now I have the right to shut the fuck up and you leave me alone!”

“Ugh fine Catra, have it your way” Adora grabs the beers they originally came to the kitchen for and starts walking back out to the courtyard.

“I’m not fucking burger king” Catra bites back and picks up the rest of the beer cups to take to their friends, and Chad, _“Chad, really? What kind of name is that? Is_ _there a more fucking white boy name than that?”_ Catra thinks to herself. 

When they finally make their way to the grass and sit down Lonnie asks:

“What the hell took you so long?” 

“Beer pong” Adora responds. 

“So I’m guessing Catra won?” Kyle asks.

“Yeah” Adora responds looking over at Catra. 

“Wait how did you know?” Chad asks Kyle.

“Oh these two are stupidly competitive so we know the look each of them gets when they lose a game” Kyle responds, not mentioning the fact that they also know how they look when they win and Catra is not gloating in her victory as usual. Something's up, and it's probably about Chad.

“Thanks for the beer girls” Rogelio says, everyone follows suit. 

“Guys this was great but I gotta head inside, Adora feel free to come say hi to the guys” He smiles, gets up and as he starts walking Adora asks “Wait! Your jacket” 

“Oh keep it, for now, you need it more than me you can give it to me later” Chad waves goodbye and heads back into the house.

When he’s out of earshot Lonnie finally says what she’d been trying hard to hold in “Mhhmhh You can give it to me later” then winks. 

Rogelio and Kyle chuckle at this, Adora looks horrified and Catra is not showing any emotion. How Catra can pull this off when drunk, no one knows.

“Girl he’s into you, when you were away all he said were nice things about you, how good you are at basketball, how funny you are even when you’re clumsy as hell, you would have a real shot with him if you were single and he’s quite cute too, even though I’m not into that” Lonnie says.

“What? If I were single? What are you on about Lonnie?” 

Suddenly all eyes are on Lonnie.

“Girl look, you and your girlfriend over here clearly have some issues to resolve, that beer pong competition didn't work. You're both sulking over something. Really when will you learn your silly competitions don’t work? Just make up your damn minds so you can let each other live” Lonnie states, dead serious.

Kyle and Rogelio gasp, look at each other and then look at the girls, then back at each other. They weren't expecting a truth bomb like this to come out, Lonnie just voiced what they all knew, except Adora and Catra apparently, how clueless can they be? 

Catra and Adora are as red as tomatoes and none of them says anything, even Catra has no witty remarks. 

Catra gets up with her beer, then simply walks away without saying anything. 

“What the fuck Lonnie?” Adora says.

“What? What the fuck is going on with you two? Or do you, Adora, have two completely different love interests and you don’t know which one you like the most?” Once Lonnie speaks up, people will hear it whether they like it or not. Because of this personality trait, how she and Catra managed to not kill each other yet remains a mystery. 

Adora gasps, then she’s the one to get up and walk away, she can’t argue with Lonnie. 

“Wait Adora!” Kyle calls her, but she ignores him and keeps walking.

“Let her go, they’re going to talk” Lonnie says. 

“Maybe not the talk you’d like” Rogelio interjects.

“Well, something is better than nothing right?” Lonnie says shrugging. 

* * *

“Where are you?” Adora texts Catra. 

She starts looking around in the house, the kitchen, then decides to go upstairs when she runs into one of the guys in the basketball team, they say hi to each other and when Adora is about to keep walking he says “Adora come say hi to the rest of the guys!” Then proceeds to drag her by the wrist, but not in a hurtful way.

When she finds the guys they all greet each other and chat for a bit, Chad is there and he's dancing and talking at the same time. She finds it kind off funny, then she remembers the text she sent to Catra.

“Upstairs” Was the reply 10 minutes ago.

Adora says goodbye to everyone, gives the jacket back to Chad saying she doesn’t need it anymore, he asks her to let him know if she does, then she walks upstairs.

She sees some girls waiting in line for the bathroom then asks them “Hey did you see this girl in a leather jacket walk by?” 

“Yeah, she went in there” The girl points in the direction of the room.

“Thanks!” 

She knocks on the door, someone speaks “Who is it?”

“It’s Adora” 

The door opens and Catra stands there, expressionless.

“Come in” She says.

Adora walks in and Catra locks the door. 

“Otherwise anyone can barge in” They are in an office/library, they can’t tell for sure too many books but also a huge mahogany desk, Catra sits on the chair at the desk. She's only missing a cat on her lap to look like a villain from a superhero movie or TV show.

Adora sees a chair in the corner of the room and brings it to the front of the desk. Sitting this way across from each other almost feels like a job interview or something, neither girl points it out, even though they both notice this.

“Look Catra are you mad at me? Be honest” 

Catra picks up these two shot glasses she found somewhere and places them on the desk, she then pours tequila into each of them.

“Drink up, I found the old man's stash but hate whisky so tequila will do” 

“God Catra” Adora picks up the tiny glass and says “Cheers” 

They both drink.

“I’m not mad” Catra responds in a softer tone. Then pours two more shots. 

“Cheers” They drink again. Making weird faces along the way, it’s tequila after all. 

“Then why have you been acting as if you were all night?”

“I’m not mad I promise, I just don’t know how else to be, you know parties are not my thing” 

“Oh come on Catra things were okay until Chad showed up” 

“He’s nice” Catra says, monotone.

“Ugh fine. Are you mad about what Lonnie said?” Adora just wants to resolve this tension. She has no idea how to do it, Catra can fall into in such bad moods sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to get her out.

“Again I’m not mad.” Catra states.

Two more shots. 

“Why do you think she said it Adora?” She asks honestly this time, the alcohol has gotten to her but she’s trying her best to keep a straight face, even though the room is spinning.

Two more shots. 

Adora is very obviously drunk, courtesy of Catra. She’s quite loopy at this point. 

“Uhh Don’t know” She's swaying in her chair, the room is spinning. 

“Come on Adora answer me” Catra just wants to know.

This time Catra doesn’t pour any more shots, they’ve both had more than enough to drink at this point.

“Gosh maybe we look like girlfriends I don’t know” Adora spoke defeatedly.

“Okay, and why is that?” Catra asks, determined to get an answer out of the other girl.

“Why is what?” Adora asks.

“Why would we look like girlfriends?” Catra asks trying to remain calm.

“Ugh maybe because we’re so close? Now we even share a bed so it does look like it” 

“Close how?” Catra asks, slowly getting up, trying to keep her balance. 

“Catra we’ve been best friends since we were 6, uhh we know each other like the back of our hands, uhh we finish each other's sentences sometimes uhh we have weird competitions, uhh we cuddle, we’re close friends” Adora tries to get up, the alcohol gets to her, she almost falls when Catra grabs her. 

“You just got white girl wasted” Catra points out whilst holding Adora so she doesn’t fall.

“What?? You shouldn't say that! Besides you got me drunk!” Adora says with a pouty face, still struggling to keep her balance.

Catra chuckles for the first time in a while “Adora I’m white girl wasted too! The difference is that I’m better at keeping my shit together, besides I need to take care of you now”

Adora hugs Catra, partly to keep her balance and partly because she wanted to. She needed to sit down, clumsily she starts pushing Catra towards the office chair she was previously sitting on until she basically falls into the chair.

“What are you doing Adora?” 

“Sitting down” Adora says, clumsily sitting on Catras lap. 

“Do you have to sit right there?” Catra asks, flustered.

“Yes” Then Adora gently grabs Catra’s chin with her thumb and index fingers, then turns Catra's face and smashes it, sort of, she slams her mouth on Catra’s lips, clearly she intended to be gentler but the alcohol didn't help.

Catra’s eyes widen “Ouch! Adora that hurt!

“Uhh sorry sorry sorry! I didn’t mean to do it that hard.” Then she leans in again this time slower and gentler. Their lips touch, softly and clumsily this time.

This was their first kiss.

Catra couldn’t believe what was happening, it was weird and really nice at the same time, neither of them had any experience with this so she couldn’t really compare it to anything, but it made her feel amazing, she understood why people spoke of getting butterflies now. 

“Fuck.” Catra mutters.

Adora opened her mouth and ran her tongue on Catra’s lower lip, the other girl opens her mouth and they begin officially making out, clumsily as teenagers do, for the first time.

Adora started placing her hand underneath Catra’s shirt, she squeezed one of her breasts, not in a nice way, she did it more as if she were honking or something. 

Still, despite the alcohol and lack of experience, it makes Catra gasp, suddenly the weight of the situation they were in settled on her, they couldn’t go any further, Adora was drunk out of her mind, it wouldn't be right, but she finally knew one thing. 

Catra really wanted Adora, and right now it felt like it could be mutual. 

* * *

Unfortunately, the next day, even though they were both hungover and feeling like shit, Catra remembered most of what happened on the previous night. Especially what transpired in that office.

Adora however, didn’t remember what happened past the first couple shots of tequila.

Such are the consequences of getting blackout drunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this kids is why we should drink moderately. For your sake please be careful with too many shots of tequila in one sitting, it can end badly.  
> Also, drink lots of water! Helps the hangovers.
> 
> And if it does happen, hey that's how we learn right?


	6. Lay on the grass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for reading this, leaving kudos, it's amazing thank you! I never saw this coming. 
> 
> I have to apologise for the delay with this chapter, we all know the world is crazy and unpredictable right now, I finally came home at the beginning of the month after nearly a year away, and well, turns out I'm staying longer than anticipated... I had a lot on my plate because of this but would like to still update this story a bit more regularly.
> 
> I hope you guys like this chapter and I sincerely hope it was worth the wait.

**School Cafeteria** ****

It was the Monday following the party, Adora, Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio were having their lunch.

Catra is nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Catra?” Lonnie asks

“I… I don’t know, she left this morning without saying anything, she hasn’t spoken to me much since the party” Adora responds, gazing down at her tray the sadness was evident.

The group looks at each other knowingly and Kyle is the first one to break the silence.

“Why is that? I mean you guys are living together it seems quite difficult to avoid each other” 

He speaks softly, with an understanding tone, he doesn’t know what happened between them and is worried this could be serious enough to break them apart. 

“You see I don’t remember much from the party, I think I got white girl wasted apparently. One minute we’re all sitting on the grass then I have a vague idea of speaking to the guys in the basketball team and meeting Catra in a library or whatever, I don’t know exactly what happened, just flashes”

“So you haven’t asked?” Lonnie inquires.

“What? Of course, I did! The only conversation we had was the next day when I felt like death, I asked her what happened, she asked If I remembered, I said no and that was it. She said she had to go and has been out most of the time.” Adora’s worried expression is evident regardless of how much she tries to hide it. 

“But you guys sleep in the same room, you didn’t speak at all?” Lonnie asks, she suspects something happened between them after her comment in the grass. She’s starting to think she shouldn’t have mentioned they look like girlfriends, what if she’s the reason they fall out? 

“Uh, she’s not actually. She’s been sleeping on the sofa” This time the sad puppy look on Adora is so obvious that her friends decide to reassure her collectively by either grabbing her hand or patting her on the back. 

“Seems like there’s trouble in paradise, one thing’s for sure you guys need to talk, you can’t really do this forever, give her time she’ll come around” Lonnie says hoping she’s right.

“Guys I don’t think she came to school today, maybe one of us should check in on her?” Rogelio asks.

“I’ll do it guys, let’s see what she says” Kyle steps in and immediately starts texting Catra. 

“Thanks guys” This time Adora manages a soft smile.

* * *

Catra is laying on the grass, just letting the hours pass.

Since the party, she has not been able to stop thinking about what happened with Adora. It’s been really hard avoiding her while living in the same house, and the couch is so uncomfortable she would much rather sleep in Adora’s bed, but it’s not that she can say anything or do anything about it. Adora didn’t remember what happened between them.

‘How the fuck did I not notice? How the fuck did I completely miss this, how can I like my best friend in this way? I mean... it should have been obvious for fucks sake. I’m such an idiot, why did I have to ruin a good thing, she’s an idiot too! Fucking getting white girl fucking wasted and not remembering what she did! What if… what if she just did it because she was drunk?

She did it because she was drunk... I had no indication of any feelings before that night did I?

Why would she like me of all people? She has like fucking Chad, I hate his fucking perfect jock face, why is he so good looking anyway?

Is Adora even into girls? 

Am I into girls? Is this even okay? Am I normal? Is there something wrong with me?

Ah, fuck no! I’m not normal and that’s a good thing fuck this shit. 

I ain’t no sheep just doing what everyone else is doing, listening to whatever music they listen to, dress the same type of clothes as everyone else, never question things and just accept this shitty small-town life. 

No way. What’s the point? What do these people do anyway? They stare at me like I’m weird and maybe I am, but shit, what’s wrong with a leather jacket and biker boots? 

I have a great sense of style fuck these preppy assholes. 

This small town has too many small-minded people, I should just get out. Dad’s not here so fuck it. What else is there? Finish school, go to university, find a job and then a boyfriend then get married and have kids? Is that it? Why? What’s the fucking point? Who said this is the ideal life?

Who decided what is the ideal life in the first place? Whose ideal is it anyway?

I mean, I could get a wife instead, hahaha no fucking way. 

No marriage or kids don’t want that shit. 

God that fucking dumb blonde beautiful idiot, why??? Why can’t I get you out of my head?

Na na na na na na na na na nana I can’t get you out of my head boy this loving is all I think about… 

God, why am I humming this shitty Kylie Minogue song? Really? 

Fuck my life’

Catra places the palms of her hands over her eyes and yells out. 

Luckily not many people are wandering around the park on a Monday around lunchtime, what would they think?

‘Here is a lunatic yelling on the grass! Someone call the folks from the mental hospital. 

Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea…’

Whilst Catra is busy struggling with her internal monologue she fails to notice a figure approaching her. 

“Hello Catra”

This makes Catra jolt upright, scared shittless. 

“Fuck! Really? Don’t scare me like that!” She looks up to see someone she finds familiar but can’t quite place. A tall pale man with purplish hair wearing a dark grey suit and tie. 

“I apologise that was never my intention, do you remember me?” He speaks in a calm demeanour with a deep voice.

“Uh I might have seen you before but I’m sorry I can’t place it, did you go to the bakery?” She’s genuinely confused as to who this person is and how he knows her name, why would a guy in a suit approach her anyway?

“That’s alright, allow me to formally introduce myself my name is Hordak and I’m Oliver’s friend, we met at your place a while back”

“Oh yeah! That’s right I’m sorry, hi Mr Hordak” What the hell is this guy doing here anyway? Did he hear me yell?

“Not to worry, I heard about what happened to your father, what an unfortunate thing.”

“Yeah…” Catra can’t hide the sadness from her voice when thinking about her father. 

“After all he did to keep your house it seems you will be losing it in the end”

“What, no way he paid for it, I’ll be able to return once this is all over” 

“Dear child, I am sorry to say this might not be over for a long time, I must confess I was the one helping your father” Hordak’s words don’t match his tone, he speaks in a monotone emotionless way.

“Uh what? How… How did you help him?” Catra starts getting worried now, she can’t explain it but something is off here, what’s the deal with this guy? what kind of help? Was he… Was he the reason her father is in prison? No, no way, a guy in a suit? Aren’t they all bankers, lawyers and businessmen? No, wait a minute... they had suits in scarface! And the sopranos! And Mr Smith, well Mr Smith is an AI but still. Villains wear suits, is this guy a villain? Well, James Bond wears a suit, he’s not a villain, god I should just listen to the man and see what he says.

“Well he was working for me of course, for the most generous amount, he was able to clear his debts you see” 

“What kind of work?” This time Catra can’t ignore her instinct, something tells her this guy is not meant to be trusted.

“I run various successful businesses you see, there are plenty of positions open and it seems I need to hire someone new, now your father was a mechanic with a specific skill set, do you know anything about cars Catra?” His piercing gaze sends chills down the young girl’s back. 

“I know how to drive one and that’s it, if you need a mechanic I’m sorry but I can’t help you”

Catra is doing her best to remain calm, not showing her nerves. This guy is giving her a bad feeling she can’t ignore.

“Don’t worry I figured you wouldn’t be an experienced mechanic. I have something more suitable for you” 

“Like what?” 

Hordak searches for something on his jacket’s internal pocket and gives Catra a card, this card simply includes a mobile phone number “Call this number and we will arrange a more formal interview” 

Catra reluctantly takes the card “Thanks” she notices how weird this particular business card is as it only has a phone number and nothing else on it. 

“Looking forward to your call miss Catra, have a nice day.” He waves and starts walking away.

“Thanks you too” Catra says, confused as to what the hell just happened. No way she’s calling this number.

She picks up her phone and notices a message from Kyle.

‘Hey Catra, how are you doing? You haven’t been to school today how can you slack off without us?’

She smiles, another blond idiot with good intentions, she knows he’s really sweet but she always needs to give him shit. She texts back.

‘Kyle, sometimes I might want to slack off without you guys, why would I waste my precious slack off time staring at your skinny blond ass?’

  
  


* * *

  
  


Adora is laying in her bed on her back staring at the ceiling.

‘Where is she? Why isn’t she responding to my texts? What the hell happened? Seriously she’s been so odd since the party, what did I do? Why did I get so drunk? 

God, this can’t go on, I’ll have to talk to her today. What could have possibly happened for her to avoid me like this? She’s never done this shit before…

Just come back Catra… I don’t want us to fall out like this, it’s really stupid after such a long friendship…’

Whilst Adora is busy overthinking there is a knock on the door “Yes?” she asks.

The door opens, it’s Catra “Are you busy?” 

Busy thinking about you and what the hell could have happened… Adora thinks but chooses not to say this out loud “No, come in” 

Catra walks in and closes the door behind her. She then just stands there unsure what to do or say, she wanted to talk to Adora, try to mend their friendship somehow and just leave what happened at the party behind, it was easier said than done as the only thing she can think of when looking at the blonde now is how her lips tasted of tequila and still left butterflies in her stomach. “I just came back from work” is the only thing that came out of her mouth.

“Okay, how was work?” Adora asked, unsure how to act too, she wants to resolve whatever happened, it’s just not that easy to bring up the topic, she’s scared of what Catra might say. 

“It was okay wasn’t that busy” Time flies when you’re busy thinking and can’t seem to shake the thoughts away. 

“Cool” Adora wants to ask so many questions, yet, she only manages one “You bailed today, why didn’t you tell us?” 

I was trying to avoid you, even though you were not there it was still impossible to do it, she needed to choose her words carefully, Adora could never know “I just needed some time alone that’s all, it was nice I was at the park” She chose not to mention the encounter with creepy Hordak either.

Was it me? The whole reason you slacked off was to avoid me? Are you telling me we’re no longer friends? Adora’s mind raced, she decided she needed to flat out ask “Are you avoiding me Catra?” She dreaded the answer but she really needed to know. 

Catra's eyes widened, her pulse quickened, she’d been found, to be fair it was pretty obvious she was avoiding Adora, what could she do? “Uh I… I just needed time to think okay?” 

“Think? About what?” Is it what happened at the party? Why don’t you just tell me, Adora thought.

Catra decided she would never tell a living soul what happened at the party, but maybe there is a way to resolve this “Look Adora, we drank a lot at that party, drunk people do stupid things, it’s okay we can move on. I’m sorry Adora… I want us to be friends okay?” She had a sincere look on her face, this wasn’t a lie at all, just vague on purpose. 

Adora let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, Catra wanted to be friends, this was a relief, she wasn’t mad “Catra, of course, I want us to be friends, I was afraid you didn’t… It’s just, what kind of stupid things? What happened at the party Catra?” 

She wants to be friends! Thank Fuck… Wait Fuck Fuck Fuck I can’t tell her what happened! Catra’s mind started racing, what can I say? “Uh… Let’s just leave it, Adora, okay? It doesn’t matter” 

“Fuck you Catra, if it didn’t matter you wouldn’t be avoiding me, clearly it’s something that happened, something that I did… Please just tell me!” Adora’s tone was firm, she was not backing down.

Damn Adora, I didn’t know you could stand your ground like that… It’s kind of hot, oh shit no no, don’t think these things! She was drunk! God, I need to say something…

“Adora relax, you didn’t kill anyone okay? I wasn’t avoiding you because I helped you hide a body” 

Adora chuckles and it’s music to Catra’s ears, they both finally manage a soft smile “Come on Catra we both know you would totally help me hide a body and would not avoid me because of it” She winks, Catra flushes and looks down.

“You can’t avoid this I’ll just keep asking, what the fuck happened Catra?” Adora asks again firmly. 

Catra looks at Adora and tries to muster the most convincing tone she can find “Adora you were totally flirting hard with Chad that night, but you were so drunk I had to get you out of there, I know he’s cute but you need to be sober before you go for that okay?” 

There, an excuse, this has to work, Catra can’t think of anything else at this point. 

Adora’s eyes widen, her brain can’t seem to process this information at the moment, there is a prolonged moment of silence. 

'Fuck did this work? Can Adora see through my bullshit? Please be your usual naive blonde idiot, please.'

The longer the silence lasts the more Catra overthinks. 

“I… I don’t know what to say… Really? Did I? How?” Adora seems genuinely confused about this. Did I really flirt with Chad? I mean he is cute, that's true, and he’s a nice guy. He's always been cool with me, but what? Me? Flirt with him? What the fuck? I guess alcohol makes us do crazy things. 

“You know you were very friendly, talking all the time, he did give you his jacket like a quote “proper gentleman” Catra actually did air quotes with her fingers at the words proper gentleman. “You spent ages talking to him and his friends... I could see it happening and had to save you from your own drunk ass” 

“Uh… Okay, unexpected, but thanks I guess… Why would you avoid me about something like this anyway? You usually just confront me!” Adora still can’t believe she flirted with Chad when she was drunk and had no idea how to look at him now, does he remember? It’s going to be so awkward... Also, why the fuck would Catra avoid her about something like this? 

Shit, I need to keep this convincing “Look Adora we never spoke about him, I have no idea what your feelings towards him are, how could I confront you like this?” There dumbass just believe this shit and move on.

“What feelings? Gosh, Catra I don’t like him like that, maybe it was just the alcohol, just forget about this and stop avoiding me please I miss you” Adora says earnestly. 

You’re such an idiot… “Yes sure blame it on the alcohol princess” Princess what the fuck Catra? 

Adora’s eyes widen “Fuck you! And don’t call me princess!” 

Catra chuckles “Sure Sure, whatever you say princess” then winks “By the way, I missed you too” 

Adora smiles, she gets up and hugs Catra so hard she’s almost crushing her “God She-Hulk don’t break my ribs!” 

“That’s what you deserve you idiot” Adora responds. 

“Ugh fine” 

That night Catra sleeps on Adora’s bed.

* * *

**Around a week later**

Finally! Catra thinks to herself whilst leaving the bakery, this was a particularly busy shift and she just wanted to go home.

She was walking towards the bus stop blasting music through her earphones, distracted in her own little world. 

A mysterious figure approaches from behind and suddenly everything went black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading =) Have a nice day and stay safe!


	7. Business Overview

Catra slowly opens her eyes, blinking a few times to adjust to the light. There is a ringing in her ear and she feels a splitting headache creep up. The last thing she remembers is closing the bakery, she has absolutely no idea how she got here or where she is.

‘Where the hell am I?’ She can’t move, when she looks down she sees she’s strapped to a chair. Looking around she notices there is a flickering light above a messy desk, a few shelves with various trinkets, they look like car parts, something mechanic she can’t quite tell what it is.

The floor is made of concrete and there is a big garage door. 

‘Great, a garage, what an original place to bring someone you kidnap, why the fuck would anybody take me? What the hell did I do? I don’t have any money… I need to get out of here’ she summons her remaining strength to try to break free of the rope to no avail. 

She sighs… Looking down ‘I’m fucked’ is the last thought crossing her mind until she hears a noise. The noise is a door opening and closing along with footsteps, this startles Catra. 

The footsteps stop with the figure standing in front of her, she finds herself looking at shiny pointed shoes. When she looks up she finally discovers the identity of her kidnapper. 

“Hello Catra, how are you feeling?” Hordak asks with a flat monotone voice.

“What! Hordak?! Where the fuck am I?” ‘I can’t believe this fucking asshole taking me against my will like this.’ She chooses not to say this last part out loud. 

“Well, calm down child. All in due time” He starts walking towards the desk to get a chair, once he does he places it in front of Catra. 

“I know this is an unconventional way of bringing you in. I have tried reaching out to you amicably, I gave you my number. You’re the one who did not call” 

“What, you mean at the park? Dude, I would not call a random guy that approaches me at the park saying they have a job for me, do you know the meaning of creepy?” Catra can’t help her defiant tone, the anger is coming out, ‘who the fuck does this guy think he is?’

“Well, I guess I can understand your concern. So I will just explain why you’re here” 

“Okay, why?” 

“Well Catra, I have mentioned your father working for me do you remember that?” Hordak’s piercing gaze sends chills down Catra’s spine, she’s definitely scared shitless of this whole situation but she will not show any kind of fear or weakness. Anger is her only weapon at this point.

“Yes, I remember that.”

“Good, he was well paid for his job for a reason, your father is a good mechanic, besides this valuable skill he could easily rob most vehicles, even the most technologically advanced. He was able to get me the nicest vehicles on the market, it was unfortunate he was not careful and was caught.” 

Catra’s eyes widened, her pulse quickened, she knew this guy gave her the creeps but she definitely did not see this coming ‘Dad… Why? Working for this douchebag was so not worth it… Why would you do this…’

“Don’t be distraught Catra, you see the reason I wanted to tell you this is because your father did not clear his debt with me before being sent to prison, hence why you will step in for him” 

“What!? Fuck you! I’m not stepping in for anything! This is none of my business, I’m just a fucking teenager and I definitely can’t steal cars” 

“As I have previously mentioned there are other roles more suited to you and your skills. Besides who said you have a choice?” 

“What roles? What the hell do you want me to do? And yes I have a choice! Let me out of here and I won’t tell anyone about this, we can just leave this behind us. Take the damn house if you have to, that will cover my fathers' debts.” Catra is seriously hoping he can’t notice the despair she’s feeling from her tone. 

“You see I can’t take the house, and it won’t pay my debts, I want money and you will provide this for me, you see, you will be getting a percentage of what you earn as well so you will no longer need to work at that little bakery of yours, this is a win-win situation.” 

“For fucks sake, I won’t work for you Hordak, I don’t want to be involved in your lousy operation.” 

“Catra, you will work for me whether you want to or not. You have a debt to pay and I have connections, including valuable connections in prison. If you want your father to serve his time and get out one day then you will work for me. If you do not comply with my orders then you can say goodbye to your father” 

“WHAT!? You fucking motherfucker you will not hurt my father!!” Catra feels like she’s on fire, the anger is about to make her explode, insulting your kidnapper who also happened to threaten your father is definitely not a smart move.

**SMACK** Hordak slapped Catra in the face “Ouch! Why would you do that for?” 

“Catra you insolent child. You will not insult me any longer, you will address me as Mr Hordak and you will work for me unless you want your father to perish in prison, am I clear?” 

Catra is trying her best to fight back tears, she still feels the throbbing pain on her cheek, she can’t let anything happen to her father. No matter what, she’s just praying this job has nothing to do with sex. 

“What is the job Mr Hordak?” Her voice is coarse, she’s doing her best not to cry in front of this scary evil man, she knew he always gave her the creeps.

“Good girl. You see I will start you off with something easy, I need you to move some merchandise and you just happen to be the perfect age.” 

“What kind of merchandise?” 

“For now, marijuana. You will start working with Octavia who will teach you what you need to know.”

‘Did he say weed? Free weed for me?? This might not be too bad after all’ Catra thinks to herself “Okay when do I meet this Octavia and what do you mean for now?” 

“All in due time, Octavia will be reaching out to you, in the meantime, I suggest you quit that job of yours. And not a word of this to anyone, you know what the consequences are” 

“Okay, can I go now?” 

“Yes, you may go” Hordak cuts the rope to free Catra and opens the garage door. 

“Uh, where am I?” 

“Lars over there can give you a ride back” As he says this he starts leaving, then closes the same door he originally came from without saying another word.

“Who’s Lars?” 

“Hi, it’s me I’ll take you, what’s the destination?” A tall muscular, tattooed bald man says, seemingly appearing out of the blue and startling Catra. 

“Ah! Why would you scare me like that dude? Sure I’ll accept the ride. I’ll give you the address” ‘No fucking way I’m giving him Adora’s address I can walk from the park’

* * *

  
  


Catra arrives home, closes the door, slides down to the floor with her back against the door and drops her head in her hands.

‘God what the actual fuck, this feels like I’m in a movie... What the hell am I gonna do?’ She thinks as tears start streaming down her face, she finally allows herself to cry freely. She is scared, really truly scared. This is not the type of thing she ever envisioned herself doing. Even if it is just selling weed, something tells her this will be just the beginning, the for now bit of Hordak's sentence makes this seem highly probable.

Footsteps approach her, this time she finds herself staring at Adora’s dorky horse slippers. She doesn’t look up.

“Catra...What’s wrong?” The blonde asks, concerned. 

“Nothing don’t worry” Catra says trying to fight the tears. 

“This is definitely NOT nothing. Catra, you’re crying… Are you okay? You know you can talk to me right?” Adora sits down next to Catra, gazing at her with a concerned look and gently rubbing her back. 

“I know…” This time Catra can’t fight the tears any longer, they just flow freely now and she sobs like she hasn’t done in a very long time, Adora pulls her in for a hug and tries her best to provide some comfort, she’s definitely worried about Catra but chooses not to say anything else, Catra will speak in her own time if she wants to.

‘I can’t tell her what just happened, I can’t tell her a psycho is threatening to kill my dad if I don’t do what he says… Oh god, what am I going to do?’ 

“I… I just miss my dad, that's all” This is not technically a lie, she’s just choosing to omit the whole Hordak story.

Adora hugs Catra even tighter “Aw Catra I’m sorry, this must be really thought for you” 

“Yeah…” Thank god she believed this… Catra thinks to herself.

“You know I have an idea, why don’t we go visit him? It might be good for you and you can see how he’s doing” ‘Please say yes Catra, I don’t want to see you like this.’ Adora chooses not to say this last part out loud. 

“Okay, let’s do that” Catra smiles softly. Regardless of her current circumstances, it will be good to see her dad. 

* * *

  
  


‘Today is the day…’

Today is the day Catra visits her father in prison and later meets the person who will teach her out to sell drugs. Isn’t it ironic?

Catra can’t stop thinking about the stupid coincidence of this day, ‘Why did Octavia have to reach out today of all days?’ On the bright side, Adora has been a great support, she took a bus, then a train, then another bus with Catra just to be with her when she visits her dad. ‘This idiot can’t keep doing all of this for me… It’s really not fair’

“What are you thinking about?” Adora interrupts Catra’s train of thought, oblivious to the fact the thoughts were about her.

“Oh… uh just thinking about dad, can’t believe we’re nearly there” Catra manages a half-smile and hopes Adora doesn’t press her any further. 

Adora squeezes Catra’s hand “I know… we’re nearly there!” Catra gazes at Adora’s blue eyes and squeezes her hand back “Yeah, almost there” 

  
  


* * *

The visitor's room is spacious and full of people. Prisoners and their visitors are chatting away on their individual tables. Catra is sitting by herself at the table, her father is on the way. She can’t believe she’s about to see him. Adora stayed outside waiting for her as she said it would be best if she had a proper time to catch up with her father. 

She looks up just in time to see her father walking towards the table, she immediately gets up to greet him with a hug. They hug for a long time before sitting down.

“Catra mi Hija it’s so good to see you,” Oliver says with a hint of a tear in his eye. 

“Hi dad, it’s great to see you too” Catra manages a soft smile. 

“How have you been? How’s school and that job of yours? How’s Adora and Razz?” Her father throws all these questions at her in one go, he really wants to know what’s happening in his daughter's life.

‘Razz is okay she’s been amazing and surprisingly funny. Adora is a big dumb blonde beautiful idiot I sort off kind of like and had my first kiss with even though she doesn’t remember anything because she was a drunk idiot. The bakery was not too bad but I quit because the guy you stole cars for, who’s also the reason you’re in prison, has threatened your life if I didn’t sell drugs for him to clear your debt....’ She can’t stop the onslaught of thoughts on the novela her life somehow became and chose to simply say  “All good dad, Razz treats me well she’s super funny and makes great pies. Adora is my best friend and has been very supportive, she came with me. She's outside waiting as she wanted to give us space. The bakery is great as I get free cake” She shrugs, lying is not that difficult when you have no choice on the matter. 

“That’s great to hear! Give my regards to Razz and you be a good friend to Adora. She's like the sister you never had, also careful with the cake, okay? Sugar is not good for you” He smiles softly and reaches for Catra’s hand.

She reaches for her dad’s hand and shudders at the sister comment, it really creeps her out to see Adora in that light, not that she would ever mention this to her father. They keep chatting until the visitation time is over, it turned out really well and despite everything that’s going on, it was still great to see her dad, she misses him greatly.

Saying goodbye was incredibly difficult. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Adora is busy balancing a stick between her nose and upper lip, sitting underneath a random tree in the sidewalk. Passersby give her funny looks, she doesn’t care. 

After leaving the building Catra had been looking for her until she found Adora being her usual dorky self. 

‘What a fucking dork’ Catra thinks to herself and yet she can’t seem to stop her smile at the sight. 

“Hey Adora” 

This startles the blonde who drops the stick, blue eyes find mismatched eyes and she immediately jumps incredibly quickly to give Catra the biggest bone-crunching hug she could muster. 

“For fucks sake She-Hulk do not break my ribs!” 

“Sorry! How was it? How is he?” She lets go of Catra.

“He’s alright, he seems to get along with people and doesn't have that much trouble funny enough. He says hi” 

“That’s great! I’m glad he’s alright, do you feel better?” 

“You know what… I actually do, thanks for coming with me” Catra meant every word and smiled softly. Adora smiled back and gave her a quick peck on the cheek “Anytime when you miss him let me know I’ll come here with you” 

Catra flushes and hopes Adora can’t see it “Thanks” 

  
  


* * *

  
  


The room is brightly lit with a large kitchen table in the centre and a few chairs around it. There is a whiteboard by the wall and several coloured markers available. The board reads 

“Business Overview in blue and right underneath, in green, How to sell Marijuana” 

Catra is sitting on the left side of this table and four other people are sitting at the table in her “class” if she can call it that. Three boys and one girl, their age range should be somewhere between 15 and 21, she can’t tell exactly.

‘Fucking hell, business overview and how to sell marijuana? In green letters, of course, they can't be serious’ 

A woman walks in without warning carrying a suitcase. She places said suitcase in the table in front of her “students” 

“Hello recruits, my name is Octavia and I’m here to teach you the ropes of the business.” She opens the bag and picks up 5 old school black and white key phones then starts handing one to each of the recruits as she called them. 

“What? Black and white really? We have colour phones you know” One of the boys asks. 

“Well these never break might be why” Said another one.

Catra stares at hers ‘I wonder if this thing has snake on it’ she thinks but chooses not to say anything. 

“Does this thing have snake?” Said the last boy, he looks around Catra’s age, perhaps a year or two older. He has light brown hair, light green eyes and he sort off reminded Catra of Shaggy from Scooby-doo. She looks at him and smirks. 

“Dude knows his thing, snake was the best thing on these phones” Catra adds. 

“I know right?” He replies smiling. 

“Whatever” Says the other girl, looking bored out of her mind and completely expressionless.

“Chill out Wednesday Adams, some people like to have fun you know?” Says one of the other boys. This makes everyone laugh.

“Ughh kids, I fucking hate kids why do they have me on teaching duty?” Octavia says out loud not caring if they hear her or not “Kids shut the fuck up. I’m here to teach you the ropes and the rules, just listen to what I say and we can all leave this fucking place soon so we can go make real money.” Octavia does not care if she’s rude or not, she has no patience and just wants to get this over with.

The kids get the message, the room falls silent while Octavia starts teaching them the so-called Business Overview on how to sell Marijuana.

* * *

After the “class” is over they all know where to get the supply from, how much to charge. Tips and tricks to avoid suspicion and hiding spots for their stash. They were all told to sell it at school or university and especially at parties as this is what will provide the most money. They’re all told when to report back and the severe consequences of not handing out all the money they owe. 

Everyone leaves except the boy Catra calls Shaggy, he approaches her “Hi, she’s pretty brutal eh?” He asks 

“Yeah, but what did you expect? Mother Teresa won’t teach us this stuff” 

He chuckles “Ah! I suppose that’s true, the name’s Mark by the way. What’s yours?” He extends his hand.

Catra shakes his hand “Nice to officially meet you, I was calling you Shaggy as you look like him and selling weed is definitely funny in your case. I’m Catra” 

He laughs “I loved Scooby-doo! It’s fine I don’t mind the nickname, I've been told that before. Wanna have a smoke and brainstorm business strategies before we go?” 

“Business strategies?? Damn Octavia got to you, sure let’s do it but as far as possible from here” ‘He seems nice at least’

“Sure let’s go” He smiles.

* * *

  
  


**Senior year**

Months have passed since Catra has gotten her new “job” so to speak. She has been surprised at how easy it was to get customers, everyone wants to smoke weed anyway. 

At school she would say she knows a guy and can be the messenger, people don’t really suspect she’s the one selling, they're just calling her the real MVP of MJ as she helps everyone get it somehow. 

Suddenly, and ironically, Catra started getting invited to many school parties or “gatherings of sorts”. This is the part she hates the most, the forced socializing. Catra hates school parties. She learned that some people are actually nicer than she thought they were but others are still assholes, she needs to endure this to make money and being fake definitely does not come naturally to Catra. 

The weird thing is that she’s been making money as well, initially, she lied and said she was working extra hours at the bakery so could now help out around the house. 

Razz said she didn’t need to work so hard for them but Catra insisted if she can help she will. During the summer Catra said she had another job, this time at a diner which meant she had the time to go out and deal with her other work.

The truth is that she was busy attending as many parties as possible to be able to sell her stash quickly. She spent quite a lot of her free time with Shaggy as they had grown to become friends. It helped that he was the only one she could speak to about these things. 

Her friends didn't suspect anything was going on as they just believed she was working more, and knowing Catra more money would obviously mean more weed, they’re not complaining as they benefit from this too. Her friendship with Adora is going great and she kept her promise of going with her whenever she visits her father. 

The only thing they found weird was Catra attending parties, she didn’t tell her friends about all of the parties, but of course, the word often got out and they did go to some of them. Catra mentioned she was trying to be more social during her last year in this fucked up school, her friends accepted this as an experiment from Catra and left it there, perhaps they were just in denial or they really didn’t think Catra would do such a thing, either way, it worked in her favour. 

Things were better than expected until Catra got “promoted”.

  
  


* * *

** The promotion **

Catra was sitting at the same chair in the same garage with the same damn flickering light from her “job interview/kidnapping” scene from earlier in the year.

This time at least there was no rope tying her to the chair. Catra was grateful for this. 

Hordak walked in without warning, with a woman following close behind. She had long flowy black hair ‘is that a fucking balaclava this woman is wearing?’ Catra asked herself, the woman’s face was covered. She wore a long burgundy dress.

“Hello Catra, meet my associate, Mrs Weaver.” 

“Hello Catra, pleased to make your acquaintance” 

“Uh hi Mrs Weaver, nice to meet you too” 

“Weaver is here to tell you all about your promotion, your trial period was extremely successful, I knew you would do well. You are finally ready for the real moneymakers” Hordak said with a semblance of a creepy smile. 

“Thanks, I guess, what do you mean real moneymakers?” Catra asked, she was afraid of the answer but had to ask nonetheless.

“Well child, hard drugs are the real moneymakers” Weaver jumped in. 

“Wait what? What drugs?” Catra’s eyes widened, weed was one thing but other things? She didn’t want to follow that road. Suddenly she remembered Hordak’s previous conversation with her in this same room.

_ “What kind of merchandise?”  _

_ “For now, marijuana. You will start working with Octavia who will teach you what you need to know.” _

_ ‘Did he say weed? Free weed for me?? This might not be too bad after all’ Catra thinks to herself “Okay when do I meet this Octavia and what do you mean for now?”  _

_ “All in due time, Octavia will be reaching out to you, in the meantime, I suggest you quit that job of yours. And not a word of this to anyone, you know what the consequences are”  _

“Come on Catra, the drugs that can actually keep people hooked for one reason or the other. Either they like to party or they are trying to find comfort.  Essentially We have them for every occasion. Cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy, MDMA both in pill and powder form, ketamine and methamphetamines mostly.” Weaver speaks as if all of this was the most normal thing in the world. 

‘Oh my god, no no no no I don’t want this for fucks sake… What choice do I have?’ She thinks to herself “Can I just stick to weed?” She asks, hopeful. 

“You will stick to weed, in addition to the aforementioned supplies” Weaver responds. 

“You will need to diversify your clientele and where you operate. For student parties you can take the pills, Ecstasy and MDMA sell very well in such events. Cocaine would be a more mature drug, as they say, it’s the bankers' drug. The others… well let’s just say the more unfortunate people end up consuming them the most and usually end up developing an addiction. This is profitable to us as these are some of our most loyal customers. We can help you find new contacts but you will do as we say.” Weaver speaks in a chilling tone. 

‘What?! This woman has no empathy whatsoever, she does not care at all, fucking bitch. I can’t believe this shit fuck my life…Is she worse than Hordak?’ She thinks to herself.

At this point Catra has to come to terms with her fate, her previous situation might have been too good to be true after all.

  
  


**A few weeks later**

**School Gym**

Adora is busy shooting hoops, she’s getting most balls to go through the hoop and she’s feeling proud of herself. Catra would say she’s become a cocky bitch. Adora doesn’t care, she knows she's great at basketball.

Unbeknownst to her someone is watching. She shoots another ball through the hoop and as it dribbles away somebody catches it skillfully and passes it back to her. It’s Chad. 

“Hi Adora! ‘Sup?” He asks, flashing his pearly whites. 

Adora looks at him with a smile “Hi Chad, all good how are you?” 

“Doing great! Wanted to ask if you’d be at the Halloween party?” He asks.

“Oh, which one? Is it the school party?” 

“I guess that too, but I meant the real party at Vic’s place, his parents are away and everyone is meant to go in costume!” 

“Oh yeah! Yes actually, I’m going with the guys” ‘Catra told me about this party, still can’t believe she knows this stuff’ She thinks to herself. 

“Cool! I guess I’ll see you there” He says with a wink.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Their teenage years are coming to an end, who knows where this dangerous path will take Catra. 
> 
> PS novela means soap opera. 
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a lovely day =)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read this have a wonderful day =)
> 
> The next chapter will explore the origin story.


End file.
